Harvard researchers say a cure for baldness is on the horizon after scientists uncovered a protein that fuels hair growth.
By Mark Waghorn for StudyFinds Image: StudyFinds
A scientific discovery may make the “comb over” a thing of the past for people losing their hair.
The breakthrough could lead to a cream that fuels an unlimited supply of locks for the follicly-challenged.
In experiments, mice successfully sprouted three times as many hairs by surgically removing their adrenal glands.
These small organs above each kidney release the stress hormone corticosterone, the rodent equivalent of cortisol.
This stress hormone stops the protein GAS6 in its tracks... inhibiting hair growth.
“Restoring the expression of GAS6 could overcome stress-induced inhibition of hair follicle stem cells – and might encourage regeneration of [hair] growth,” Prof Hsu notes.
“It might therefore be possible to exploit the ability of HFSCs (hair follicle stem cells) to promote hair-follicle regeneration by modulating the corticosterone–GAS6 axis.”
Stress reactions such as worry, anger, and anxiety have long been connected to male pattern baldness.
The study, appearing in the journal Nature, identifies the process that underpins hair loss for the first time and reveals how to reverse it.