Potential treatment for baldness from a study of Skin moles that grow hair
Human testing has not yet started, but a team of researchers expects that an injection of chemicals discovered in moles could help alleviate hair loss. A study that was just published this week in the journal Nature suggests that treating unsightly skin moles may be one way to treat hair loss. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have been examining skin moles for almost ten years in an effort to determine why they grow such long hairs. Their latest study demonstrates that specific chemicals found in these moles encourage the growth of hair. Maksim Plikus , a developmental and cell biology professor at UC Irvine and the study's principal author, stated, "Those hairy skin moles are clues provided by nature." Individuals typically lose 50–100 hairs a day , after which the stem cells in their hair follicles produce new hair. However, the stem cells in those who have baldness or pattern baldness—what medical professionals refer to as alopecia or androgen...