Cloning could be 'Holy Grail' for hair loss
http://www.hair123.co.uk/articles/articles/91/1/Cloning-could-be-Holy-Grail-for-hair-loss/Page1.html
Susan Whitford
Susan Whitford has twelve years experience as a health and beauty journalist in the United Kingdom. Susan has worked as a staff writer and features editor on a number of consumer magazines. By Susan Whitford
Published on 15th October, 2010
A team of American scientists specialising in hair loss believe cloning
could well be the Holy Grail for hair transplant treatment.
A team of American scientists specialising in hair loss believe cloning could well be the Holy Grail for hair transplant treatment.
Doctors working at Tulane University in New Orleans have said that a lack of donors is a major limit to hair transplantation at the moment, but the ability to clone follicles could change all that.
One of the doctors, Nicole Rogers, MD, said the technology has not yet been perfected, and that approval from medical administrative bodies would be a very rigorous task, but she believed that one day cloning would revolutionise hair loss treatment.
"That would be the Holy Grail," Dr Rogers said. "It would be great if we could harvest a single hair from the back of the head and create thousands of copycat hairs from that. There is significant research ongoing in that area, but we are not there yet. It's still going to be a while before it is ready for Food and Drug Administration approval."
The cloning technology would have to be able to deal with variables of the hair, including controlling the calibre and angle of hair growth, as well as making sure it did not trigger other skin conditions, including skin cancers.
Doctors working at Tulane University in New Orleans have said that a lack of donors is a major limit to hair transplantation at the moment, but the ability to clone follicles could change all that.
One of the doctors, Nicole Rogers, MD, said the technology has not yet been perfected, and that approval from medical administrative bodies would be a very rigorous task, but she believed that one day cloning would revolutionise hair loss treatment.
"That would be the Holy Grail," Dr Rogers said. "It would be great if we could harvest a single hair from the back of the head and create thousands of copycat hairs from that. There is significant research ongoing in that area, but we are not there yet. It's still going to be a while before it is ready for Food and Drug Administration approval."
The cloning technology would have to be able to deal with variables of the hair, including controlling the calibre and angle of hair growth, as well as making sure it did not trigger other skin conditions, including skin cancers.