Hair Transplantation And Cloning

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Intercytex, a British cell therapy company that develops products to restore and regenerate skin and hair, has partnered with The Automation Partnership, a private company, to develop an automated manufacturing process for its novel hair multiplication treatment. The British government awarded Intercytex a grant for this purpose. Intercytex reported that Phase 2 trials of the hair cloning treatment have shown positive results.

The hair multiplication product, ICX-TRC, has been submitted as a hair regeneration therapy that uses cells cloned from a person’s own scalp. It is intended for the treatment of male pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia) and female pattern hair loss. The key researcher, biochemist Dr Paul Kemp, founder of Intercytex, is developing the hair multiplication treatment at a Manchester facility. The investment in hair cloning research is spearheaded by UK. Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury.

The government grant will be used mainly to develop a robotic system specifically designed to support the commercial-scale production of the hair cloning product at a scale that can handle a large number of people.

The treatment involves the removal of a slice of the scalp — complete with hairs and follicles, from the back of the head. In a laboratory, the hair producing dermal papilla cells are extracted from the sample and multiplied in flasks. After eight weeks the dermal papilla cells should have closed into millions of hair cells.

The treatment is completed with the new cells are injected back into the patient’s scalp under a local anesthetic. The company sais these cultured cells should then develop into new hair follicles.

According to Intercytex researchers, more than 1,000 injections might be necessary to treat people with full-blown male pattern baldness. They say, however, that this will still be quicker and less invasive than many of the more radical procedures now offered.

But male pattern baldness is not the only condition the treatment could be used for, the researchers say. They report that the treatment could be used for a variety of causes of hair loss including burns and cancer treatment as well as for purely aesthetic reasons caused by age-related hair loss.

Meanwhile, two scientists — Drs. Amanda Reynolds and Colin Jahoda — have reported that dermal sheath cells, found in the lower part of the human follicle, can be isolated from one person and then injected into the skin of another to promote the formation of new intact hair. In their paper, “Trans-Gender Induction of Hair Follicles, they report that the implanted cells interactedly locally to stimulate the creation of full terminal hair follicles. Although this is not exactly cloning, the dermal sheath cells can potentially be multiplied in a Petri dish and then injected in great numbers to produce a full head of hair, they report.

Are you experiencing hair loss? If so, please contact us to speak with a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon about the various treatment options available to you.


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