Desmond, What Are the Big Questions?

[NeedHairASAP]

I know you've gone through this before, but What are the big questions left?

PGD2 castrates our hair

FGF9 and VEGF and some WNTS may be helpful in growth once inflammation and PGD2 are taken care of.


but, what are the questions left to connect the dots?

and,

who is working on them?

is funding an issue? Cots seemed to say it was.

[Desmond84]

I know you've gone through this before, but What are the big questions left?

PGD2 castrates our hair

FGF9 and VEGF and some WNTS may be helpful in growth once inflammation and PGD2 are taken care of.


but, what are the questions left to connect the dots?

and,

who is working on them?

is funding an issue? Cots seemed to say it was.

Wow! A very good question and definitely a difficult one to answer!

If we look at the pathophysiology of MPB, there are THREE possible ways to cure MPB:

1) One way would be to combat the entire MPB cascade PLUS reverse fibrosis. The end result in theory would yield teen density and a NW1; however, the regenerated hairs will still be susceptible to DHT due to the stem cells they originated from! This would mean, the patient would then have to take Finasteride or an anti-androgen for life in order to maintain this density!

2) The second route would be Gene therapy. Altering specific genes that are found to be causing MPB and then somehow kickstarting the bulge stem cells to produce hairs again. Unfortunately however, MPB is NOT a single gene BUT a whole array of genes making things VERY complicated with possible detrimental effects including organ failure and mortality!

3) Bio-engineer NEW DHT-resistant hair follicles as "hair-germs" using the donor zone as your blueprint and then implant them to form teen density. (i.e. Tsuji)

__________________________________________________ _____________

Taking on PGD2, DHT, Androgen receptors, DKK-1, FGF-9, WNTs and fibrosis is a behemoth task when the end result are hairs that are still susceptible to DHT. Moreover, trying to understand this complicated cascade of events with limited funding and then finding solutions to combat those problems would take well over 20-30 years, and will most definitely not benefit anyone born before 2000!

The gene therapy is also VERY risky and scary thought due to the heterogenous genomics of MPB. The recent finding linking MPB with heart disease highlights the cross-linking of these genes with our vital organs!

So, ultimately my educated guess would be the most realistic solution we will see in our lifetime would be in the form of the hair-germ method shown in pre-clinical trials of the Tsuji team and at least we know that it works. The only hurdle at this point is getting sufficient mesenchymal and epithelial stem cells to do it, something that will be solved within the next decade.

Hope that answers your question brother and I welcome anyone else wanting to add to this! Our collective knowledge will definitely benefit everyone on this forum

Cheers

[youngin]

The big question is what causes hair loss. No genetics are not the CAUSE. Show me any study that proves they are. Show that they can pull a child's genes and prove they will get hair loss. NOPE NOT GONNA HAPPEN. DHT is not the cause or transplants wouldn't work. PGD2 is a biproduct of the system thats causing the hair loss and inflammation. Solving these factors (PGD2, DHT, DKK1) are only temporary solutions (if at all). Its abunch of time wasting bullshit. You going to take a DHT suppressant? FINE then, play with your endocrine system. You going to put an immunosuppressant on your head to stop PGD2? FINE, but it will get in your blood, and will compromise your immune system. The focus of this community and the medical community is usually far misplaced and focuses vastly on treatment and not solutions. Stem cell therapy is the only valid solution on the rise. Pray for Nigam.

[moore]

N.1

@Desmond, I like your post. Very technical.

Number 1 would be my bet, BUT....there is a but.

If fibrosis can be reversed, then theoretically would hair grow again?

Does not reverting fibrosis starts with deactivating androgen receptors, which in my eyes is the final solution?

Even if a teen-density yelding solution is found, as I already wrote, technology should be able to manipulate freely hair density all over human body. To miniaturize hair where we do NOT want it to grow, and to get terminal hair where we do. Androgenic receptors are to be re programmed not only on our heads.

[walrus]

The big question is what causes hair loss. No genetics are not the CAUSE. Show me any study that proves they are. Show that they can pull a child's genes and prove they will get hair loss. NOPE NOT GONNA HAPPEN. DHT is not the cause or transplants wouldn't work. PGD2 is a biproduct of the system thats causing the hair loss and inflammation. Solving these factors (PGD2, DHT, DKK1) are only temporary solutions (if at all). Its abunch of time wasting bullshit. You going to take a DHT suppressant? FINE then, play with your endocrine system. You going to put an immunosuppressant on your head to stop PGD2? FINE, but it will get in your blood, and will compromise your immune system. The focus of this community and the medical community is usually far misplaced and focuses vastly on treatment and not solutions. Stem cell therapy is the only valid solution on the rise. Pray for Nigam.

Read the Garza et al., 2012 paper: 'Prostaglandin D2 Inhibits Hair Growth and Is Elevated in Bald Scalp of Men with Androgenetic Alopecia' and you will learn the exact cause. At the end of the day it is, like any other process in your body, underpinned by genetics. We are still just learning more about the mechanisms.

[Thinning87]

For those of us who are not expert enough to read and understand the Garza paper I think this is a great thread.

If anyone could explain more it would be very interesting

[Pentarou]

Desmond, what are you thoughts on Follica and the whole wounding treatment angle in general?

[NeedHairASAP]

Desmond, what are you thoughts on Follica and the whole wounding treatment angle in general?

he kind of answered this in his post....

[youngin]

Read the Garza et al., 2012 paper: 'Prostaglandin D2 Inhibits Hair Growth and Is Elevated in Bald Scalp of Men with Androgenetic Alopecia' and you will learn the exact cause. At the end of the day it is, like any other process in your body, underpinned by genetics. We are still just learning more about the mechanisms.

I read it as soon as it came out. So? That doesn't make it the cause, nor the ONLY issue. It could easily be your immune systems response to whatever mechanism is happening in your follicle. It really fixes nothing.

[walrus]

Given that a causal inhibitory effect of PGD2 on hair growth was established... it is in fact a cause. The enzyme that produces PGD2 is also known to respond to testosterone levels, so by tackling downstream levels of PGD2 it is quite possible we can even forget about androgens. Do you have a better fix than that?

[Pentarou]

he kind of answered this in his post....

Not directly!

Also, I think that Des should tell us what he thinks re: treatments not just the ultimate cure. We need better treatments if only as means to bridge the time until a cure is available. The existing treatments are so lame, not only do they run out of effectiveness in long term users, they regrow next to no hair 'cept on a few lucky freaks.

[cichlidfort]

No genetics are not the CAUSE.

LOL, genetics aren't a cause? Are you implying that MPB is random? Don't be ridiculous, genetics are everything we are. Genetics is our blueprint. Of course it is genetics. Don't be absurd.

[Desmond84]

Desmond, what are you thoughts on Follica and the whole wounding treatment angle in general?

Also, I think that Des should tell us what he thinks re: treatments not just the ultimate cure. We need better treatments if only as means to bridge the time until a cure is available. The existing treatments are so lame, not only do they run out of effectiveness in long term users, they regrow next to no hair 'cept on a few lucky freaks.

Follica is a company working on physiology of wounding and its possible regenerative potentials. They trialled their first treatment (Lithium + wounding), which most probably didn't give cosmetic results back in 2009, hence the lack of published data or publicity.

Since then they've explored the reason for such shortcomings and pinpointed a protein known as FGF-9 which may have the potential to regenerate hair follicles. This is still in pre-clinical phase and will probably take as long as Tsuji's work to come to fruition. Firstly because FGF-9 has not been tested as a therapeutic agent in humans before and requires a 3-phased trial and secondly Follica has also been veryyy slow at conducting trial. Their last trial (Phase 1/2a) using lithium + wounding took well over 4 years.

Histogen will definitely help maintain and regrow your lost density by around 20%. Unfortunately, they are still many years away from a product release, late 2016 being the earliest.

Aderans is finished and Washenik's promise to continue with his research is a tactful way of keeping both sides happy (us and Bosley) in order to keep his senior position at Bosley.

Replicel will begin its Phase 2b trial in January and its final data should be release by June 2016. Hopefully by early 2017, it will become available in some asian countries if it proves to be beneficial. I personally believe Replicel may be a Finasteride alternative (i.e. maintenance)

Cosmo's CB-03-01 will begin its Phase 2 trials in january 2014 as well and we can expect a product launch by 2018 if we are lucky.

Hyundai Pharmaceuticals: Their R&D is useless to us. They're developing another 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (i.e. Finasteride). What for? Who knows!

Hygeia Pharmaceuticals: seems to have gone bust! All their operation was halted in 2010 Sad thing is they had a topical non-steroidal anti-androgen in the pipeline, which may have been better than CB-03-01

Gliamed: All operations halted in 2009! They seems to be having financial difficulties. Furthermore, AGA seems to be the last item on their agenda.

Molplex: These guys finally received a small funding for their R&D from the UK government. Their product release date is set for 2019! No information is released about what their product is or what it can do!

Incentis Pharmaceuticals: is a VERY small R&D lab with majority as academics backing it. A novel approach that hasn't been tried before and is cell-based which is exciting! They are still in the pre-clinical phase with their product release date set somewhere around 2020 if all goes well.

Dr Gerd/Lauster: They are currently developing a microchip technology and have shelved their hair multiplication technology.

That's all the treatments I could think of apart from Tsuji. All in all, there are treatments in the pipeline that will help with maintenance and some regrowth, but they are some years away meaning we really have to do something about our hair today. "Finasteride micro-dosing" seems to be one option.

Cheers

[Desmond84]

Introduction to Exponential Thinking

I say let's put ALL the Hairloss researchers, HT surgeons and FDA regulators through Singularity University. All that agree say "aye":



"Our system is set up for the world of 100-200 years ago...we are NOT set up for the world of today and definitely not for the world of tomorrow!"

[hellouser]

Dr Gerd/Lauster: They are currently developing a microchip technology and have shelved their hair multiplication technology.

Source?