Baldness affects one in three men and today many remedies put up for sale are not effective since hair loss is given, in most cases, by a hereditary factor. Those who seek to recover hair on the head have to resort, almost always, to hair grafts that are not exactly cheap.
An investigation carried out by a team of scientists from the University of California in Los Angeles (United States), published in Science Daily , has found a new way to get hair back to grow and now we are studying how to put this discovery in practice to make it an effective remedy to treat baldness . The finding has offered effective results in alopecia caused by stress, hormonal imbalances, aging or chemotherapy.
Scientists have managed to activate the stem cells responsible for hair growth in the hair follicle. Some cells that are in the skin of people throughout life and are quiescent (usually inactive, but can be activated quickly).
From the analysis of the metabolism of these studied cells, their effectiveness in recovering hair was determined. These cells break down necessary nutrients to divide. They use enzymes to alter those nutrients and produce pyruvate, which is a metabolite that the cell sends to its mitochondria (to create energy) or convert to lactate (another metabolite). If lactate production is accelerated, hair growth is accelerated.
In the investigation, two experimental drugs (RCGD423 and UK5099) have been identified that have been effective in accelerating lactate production in mice. Now it remains to be seen if human trials are equally effective.
