SKIN FAT CELLS: A PROMISING TREATMENT FOR HAIR LOSS

American researchers from Yale University have recognised certain fat cells in the skin as a source of chemicals required to stimulate hair to grow. Experiments have shown that fat have a big affect on hair stem cell activity.

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The study was done on laboratory mice that had difficulty growing hair and after injecting a particular type of fat cell, the mice started to grow hair. The research team is now finding ways to use these findings to restart hair growth and hopefully cure all men and women suffering from hair loss.

Alopecia areata is the most common type of hair loss that affects men and women. Male and female pattern baldness is a hereditary type hair loss that typically starts when a person reach about 30 years old. The cause of alopecia areata is due to a very important hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

Today, Alopecia areata is treated by inhibiting or controlling the production of DHT. But as mentioned earlier, DHT is a crucial hormone especially for men. Stopping the production of this hormone can cause all sort of unfavorable side effects. So inhibiting DHT really isn’t the solution in treating hair loss. A person may have hair but with the price of sacrificing other bodily functions or may even cause a deadly disease like cancer.

Unlike this new discovery, where fat cells are used to wake up the hair stem cells to restart the hair follicles to produce healthy terminal hair. This is a more natural approach and probably has no side effects.

In the study, defective mice are used and these laboratory mice cannot produce this type of fat cells had difficulty growing hair. Then these mice were injected with fat cells extracted from healthy mice. In just two weeks time, the defective mice started to grow new healthy hair.

The scientists still have to find the human counter part of these fat cells to use as a hair loss treatment.