-
Administrator
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy | Dr. Joseph Greco Ph.D. Answers Your Questions
Can the infusion of platelet rich plasma (PRP) help to reverse or slow the process of Androgenic Alopecia? Does this therapy actually reverse hair follicle miniaturization and “wake up” dormant follicular stem cells?
Dr. Joseph Greco Ph.D. will be answering your questions concerning this possible breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of hair loss, exclusively on Baldtruthtalk.com.
Please feel free to post your questions for Dr. Greco and he will provide as much information as possible about his research and results with PRP as it pertains to hair loss.
This is a great opportunity to communicate directly with one of the foremost experts in PRP therapy for hair loss, so feel free to get involved.
-
Senior Member
Hello Dr. Greco I think we all have many questions for you.
Does this treatment work as well or better then Propecia?
Do you have to be on any medication for this to work?
When will it it be available?
How many people have you treated and what were the results.
Does it work on everyone who still has some hair?
Thanks in advance!
Paul
-
Hello dr. Greco.
- Is your treatment useful on the hairline?
- How much density?
Thanks.
-
Senior Member
Dr. Greco,
Incredible results for treating injuries. Thank you for your research in PRP therapy and sharing it with the hairloss community. And what a pleasant surprise to see that you are treating Dr. Cooley for a tennis elbow injury. I have a similiar situation in my left shoulder as I injured it last September. Very slow to heal, it's the tendons and/or ligaments that I injured. Chronic pain and now more a nerve sensation down the arm.
Back to hairloss and PRP therapy.
1) Since MPB is a genetic disposition and not an injury, how can PRP reverse "the progression" aspect of the disease?
2) Does PRP reduce the production levels of DHT?
3) Does PRP enhance the hair follicle's resistance to DHT?
4) And just to confirm, this therapy would be ongoing for a lifetime since the disorder is progressive over a lifetime?
5) How many partcipants are in your ongoing study and any distinctions that we need to be aware of? How many females are in the trial group?
6) Will you be treating other forms of alopecia with PRP?
7) How frequent will you be releasing your clinical findings for treating MPB and where will you be publishing them?
8) Just out of curiosity, do you have MPB or does it exist in your family history? And if so, do you plan on doing PRP therapy yourself or possibly are already doing it?
9) How practical is it for this therapy to get into HT practices and clinics?
10) Here's my biggie question. Does your theory suggest that if the young men who are diagnosed with MPB early, and they get on PRP therapy, that they may never need surgical hair restoration?
"Gillenator"
Independent Patient Advocate
more.hair@verizon.net
NOTE: I am not a physician and not employed by any doctor/clinic. My opinions are not medical advice nor are they the opinions of the following endorsing physicians: Dr. Bob True & Dr. Bob Dorin
-
Administrator
Dr. Greco will be posting his responses ASAP. Thanks for your participation and feel free to add to the list if you have other questions.
-
Senior Member
I look forward reading his reply. It's very exciting if you ask me.
-
Ph.D
Originally Posted by gillenator
Dr. Greco,
Incredible results for treating injuries. Thank you for your research in PRP therapy and sharing it with the hairloss community. And what a pleasant surprise to see that you are treating Dr. Cooley for a tennis elbow injury. I have a similiar situation in my left shoulder as I injured it last September. Very slow to heal, it's the tendons and/or ligaments that I injured. Chronic pain and now more a nerve sensation down the arm.
Back to hairloss and PRP therapy.
1) Since MPB is a genetic disposition and not an injury, how can PRP reverse "the progression" aspect of the disease?
2) Does PRP reduce the production levels of DHT?
3) Does PRP enhance the hair follicle's resistance to DHT?
4) And just to confirm, this therapy would be ongoing for a lifetime since the disorder is progressive over a lifetime?
5) How many partcipants are in your ongoing study and any distinctions that we need to be aware of? How many females are in the trial group?
6) Will you be treating other forms of alopecia with PRP?
7) How frequent will you be releasing your clinical findings for treating MPB and where will you be publishing them?
8) Just out of curiosity, do you have MPB or does it exist in your family history? And if so, do you plan on doing PRP therapy yourself or possibly are already doing it?
9) How practical is it for this therapy to get into HT practices and clinics?
10) Here's my biggie question. Does your theory suggest that if the young men who are diagnosed with MPB early, and they get on PRP therapy, that they may never need surgical hair restoration?
Thank you for your great questions. Regarding, “does PRP reduce DHT”? We do not know this. Do other approved FDA non DHT blockers like Rogaine reduce DHT? We do not know this. Does Low level light therapy reduce DHT? We do not know this. Basically, medicines and other therapies have different mechanisms of action other than lowering levels of DHT, but are approved because they have demonstrated some positive results.
First, this study was prompted after utilizing PRP in hair restoration to determine if traumatizing (inducing Stat-3) and infusing high concentration of growth factors would have any effect on non transplanted hairs. The study was never intended to create a procedure or replace any traditional FDA approved therapies, but the study created even more intriguing questions.
Why did hair in the treatment group reverse for up to eight months? What turned on the dormant follicular stem cells in the Alopecia Areata patient whose condition was getting worse?
Was creating Stat-3 along with infusion of highly concentrated growth factors inhibiting DHT? Honestly, we do not know. We are only observing and trying to understand.
Knowing that PDGF promotes angiogenesis and mitogenesis and based upon previous independent research by (Takakura et al, 1996) who demonstrated that PDGF signals are involved in both epidermis-follicle interaction and the dermal mesenchyme interaction required for hair canal formation and the growth of dermal mesenchyme, respectively.
In 2001,Yano et al identified VEGF as a major mediator of hair follicle growth and cycling providing the first direct evidence that the improved follicle revascularization a) promotes hair growth and b) increases follicle and hair size. It was these excellent independent studies that we based our study upon.
What we do know is that first generation PRP is safe and has a wide variety of applications in medicine. The next generation of autologus platelet rich plasma is the addition of an extra cellular “matrix” (ECM) and independent studies conclude that, “GF–ECM complexes may well be the most effective and efficient method to stimulate cell proliferation, as well as tissue healing or regeneration”. (Clark et al, 2008)
A great deal of further study is warranted in cellular therapy to fully understand what is going on. We are in the process of investigation a large study with a highly respected scientific research hospital that will include hundreds of patients.
I have no problem utilizing in PRP in a surgical hair procedure or in a younger patient just beginning to miniaturize in the crown or vertex that cannot take traditional therapy because of side effects or in combination with FDA approved therapies because it is safe.
Personally, I have had three hair transplants and have been on Propecia for 8 years. I have had cellular therapy and in twenty five years of being in medicine have never seen some of the things I have seen with this therapy.
Regenerative medicine is the future of medicine and we are only beginning to understand how it works. PRP is only the first generation and the future of hair multiplication will include some combination of GF/ECM complex, stem cells and cultured hair cells.
-
Hello dr. Greco, I have another question for you. You said that you have no problem utilizing in PRP in a younger patient just beginning to miniaturize in the crown or vertex. But could you do it in someone who is beginning to miniaturize in the hairline (like me)? I just want to slow down my hairloss, which is just at the beginning.
Btw, can you tell us the cost of the treatment?
Thanks.
-
Ph.D
Originally Posted by Dante666
Hello dr. Greco.
- Is your treatment useful on the hairline?
- How much density?
Thanks.
Hello Dante, actually that is one of my five sons names. Like Propecia and Rogaine it will not work in the hairline as well as it does in the vertex or posterior crown.
-
Last May I contracted a scalp fungal infection from a beauty salon that was misdiagnosed by my doctor as psoriasis. For 4 painful months I was using topical steroids in an alcohol base as treatment - which was doing nothing except perhaps making a stronger fungus, inflicting severe pain and making my condition worse.
I finally found a decent dermatologist who immediately recognized the real problem and arranged a correct treatment program. The pain, itching and flaking has now stopped, but it took a really long time to arrest the situation.
Hair regrowth has been SLOOOOW. Glacially so . . They say that now I am experiencing hair loss from stress and that my scalp suffered an injury and needs time to heal and balance out.
Under these circumstances - do you think this PRP treatment would be helpful to me? Is this effective for women and men? (I'm a woman) Thanks
Similar Threads
-
By TeeJay73 in forum Hair Loss Treatments
Replies: 43
Last Post: 04-27-2017, 10:42 AM
-
By Refuse2GoBald in forum Hair Loss Treatments
Replies: 45
Last Post: 09-07-2009, 05:19 PM
-
By tbtadmin in forum BaldTruthTalk Videos
Replies: 0
Last Post: 04-03-2009, 06:31 PM
-
By aunt marney in forum Women's Hair Loss: Start Your Own Topic
Replies: 5
Last Post: 12-09-2008, 03:04 PM
Tags for this Thread
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
Forum Rules
|
» IAHRS
» The Bald Truth
» americanhairloss.org
|
Bookmarks