Why is there no fix for Male Pattern Baldness?

[Evo]

Garnier's Fructise is available everywhere, it seems. Your local drug store, walmart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Garnier-Fructis-Fall-Fight-Fortifying-Shampoo-25.4-oz/20701261

All caffeine brands http://www.walmart.com/search/searc...l0=e&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=19551997094&wl4=&veh=sem

 

[member 392791]

I don't know why the medical community is wasting time and resources on trivial problems like curing cancer or fighting infectious disease or birth defects when they should be confronting some really superficial issues like MPB.

Maybe that's what's lacking: people refer to the condition as 'male pattern baldness' when they should be referring to 'MPB'. That makes it sound like something which could strike anyone, anywhere, anytime. There could be an MPB Campaign, Walk for an MPB Cure, Raising MPB Awareness campaigns, the wearing of the Steel Gray Ribbon to show your Support to Find a Cure for MPB.

First time I ever lol'd on PF

 

[mheslep]

...

Is MPB just one of those natural aging processes for which there will never be a real fix?

Apparently a "real" medical "fix" is upon the hairline challenged. Expect another 5-10 years of development.

In PNAS:
Claire A. Higgins, James C. Chen, Jane E. Cerise, Colin A. B. Jahoda, and Angela M. Christiano
Feature Article: Microenvironmental reprogramming by three-dimensional culture enables dermal papilla cells to induce de novo human hair-follicle growth
PNAS 2013 ; published ahead of print October 21, 2013

Growth of de novo hair follicles in adult skin occurs by a process known as hair neogenesis. One way of initiating neogenesis is to place dermal papillae isolated from the hair follicle in contact with an overlying epidermis where they reprogram the epidermis to adopt a follicular fate. This approach, however, has not been successful using cultured human dermal papilla cells in human skin because the cells lose their ability to induce hair growth after expansion in vitro. In this paper, we demonstrate that by manipulating cell culture conditions to establish three-dimensional papilla spheroids, we restore dermal papilla inductivity. We also use several systems biology approaches to gain a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie this regenerative process.

One of the researchers has a hair loss condition called alopecia areata:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfLLkmY_t9k

 

[gavztheouch]

I have a potential project for this forum. It's based on the fact that zinc and copper ions block the effects of DHT on the follicles.

See this study
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/15461544_Cations_inhibit_specifically_type_I_5_alpha-reductase_found_in_human_skin

finasteride and similar drugs prevent the conversion of testosterone into dht. The problem with fin is it goes systemic. The holy grail of hairloss prevention is to block dht locally at the follicle and allow it elsewhere in the body. There is a drug in development which does this but it is years away from release.

last year a couple of nuclear physicists from a top Israel university released a patent in which they talked about blocking dht using ions of copper and zinc. Some photos where leaked of the results and they are impressive. Not full regrowth but results similar to using fin and minox.

using some copper and zinc discs and a bench top power supply it may be possible to deposit ions of zinc and copper into the scalp.

 

[Saxon Violence]

A couple thoughts about Baldness:

Why can't they harvest hair Follicles from the face?