follicept - what's this?

[unbalding]

Wait what just happened?... Haha

lol I can't figure out if he's being sarcastic or if he seriously just did a 180.

It seems Dr. Okajima isn't exactly the most reputable researcher. Though he does have an impressive body of work nonetheless.

Kenji Okajima retraction count grows to five

In all, it looks as Nagoya found evidence of misconduct in 19 papers. The Journal of Neuroscience retraction appeared in 2011, and another showed up in the Journal of Immunology last year. Now there are three more: One in Translational Research and two in Blood.

[NeedHairASAP]

lol I can't figure out if he's being sarcastic or if he seriously just did a 180.

same

[Gerhard]

I agree

This only FDA Drugs is just a band aid and maybe at best buys us all time.
As far I'm concerned these are 2 piss poor Medications and well past there sell by date & getting very old in this day & age.
Millions of people are just pissed of how slow this crap is and today 2015 we are no closer than we was 30 yrs ago IMHO.
sad but true.

I think the only way forward would be to clone human Hair follicles.
They can clone a sheep, why cant it be done with a poxy hair?

Thankfully now with the patents up, more companies seem interested in trying to get in on this multi-billion dollar market. If they were to develop a better treatment (even if not a fullblown cure) they'd pull in those balding men who are hesitant to go on treatments and make even more money. There's good incentive here now that people are becoming more aware of propecia's shortcomings. I hope cloning comes soon, brother.

lol I can't figure out if he's being sarcastic or if he seriously just did a 180.

It seems Dr. Okajima isn't exactly the most reputable researcher. Though he does have an impressive body of work nonetheless.

Kenji Okajima retraction count grows to five

Time to hope there's something to it and that he's not completely full of shit.

[Rog]

One interesting possibility that arises from the production of IGF-1 from stimulation of the sensory nerves in the scalp through the sensation of pain is that the technique of wounding or other forms of perturbation of the scalp may be causing hair regrowth due to the resulting IGF-1 stimulation as much as by any upregulation of WNT.

In other words, those attributing hair regrowth from dermarolling the scalp may be getting it because of the resulting increase in IGF-1 signalling and not (or less) due to upregulation of WNT. As they say, correlation does not prove causation, so its just an idea to be tested and better understood. Its also worth noting that WNT upregulation is often associated with scarring, so its not without its problems viz hair regrowth.

[Swooping]

No ,guys Dr. Okajima is legit. The guy has a scholarship of a god (magna cum laude) compared to someone like Cotsarelis. Follicept seems damn legit to if I look at the credentials of the poeple involved. I was too short sighted.

I'm definately going to buy the products, I can't wait for follicept to come in with possibly better working IGF-1 products. Btw Theradome lately is getting some damn good results. Now using blue light instead of red actually stimulates IGF-1! Maybe we should concentrate on that too, to maximize our IGF-1 levels. Really looking awesome this.

[NeedHairASAP]

No ,guys Dr. Okajima is legit. The guy has a scholarship of a god (magna cum laude) compared to someone like Cotsarelis. Follicept seems damn legit to if I look at the credentials of the poeple involved. I was too short sighted.

I'm definately going to buy the products, I can't wait for follicept to come in with possibly better working IGF-1 products. Btw Theradome lately is getting some damn good results. Now using blue light instead of red actually stimulates IGF-1! Maybe we should concentrate on that too, to maximize our IGF-1 levels. Really looking awesome this.

I also reviewed the team and it's a major factor in why I'm interested.

Of course, lets see what happens.

[follicept]

On it.

All of these studies are retrospective case-control association studies. They are looking at associations from a database of information that includes whether individuals have AGA and whether they have IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 levels. Association studies are not evidence of causation. Only prospective studies specifically designed to answer the question address causation. This is a basic principle in epidemiology. Retrospective studies are convenient to do and often provide the impetus to do prospective studies to provide evidence for causation. They are also subject to many kinds of bias, which is one of the reasons why they are not considered as definitive evidence for causation.

A good example to illustrate this principle is an outstanding retrospective association study that controls extensively for bias, which clearly demonstrates that hypoglycemia in persons with diabetes on insulin therapy is "associated" with death. Even in this landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which is the basis for recommendations by every diabetes association in every country to avoid hypoglycemia, the authors were very careful to point out that it may not be hypoglycemia itself that causes death. It may be a surrogate marker for death. One way to think about this is that "A" (hypoglycemia) may be associated with but not directly be the cause of "C" (death). "A" may correlate with the actual cause of death ('B'), which is not yet known.

Thus, low IGFBP-3 and high free IGF-1 levels in blood ("A") may be found to be associated with AGA ("C"), but this is not the same as saying high IGF-1 causes AGA, since they may correlate with the actual mediator of AGA ("B"), which may not yet be clearly established.

The concentration of IGF-1 in Follicept is about the same or lower than normal free IGF-1 levels based on age (children have the highest levels because they need it for normal growth) and about the same target blood level for IGF-1 hormone replacement in children with congenital IGF-1 deficiency. The high levels in children, teens, and young adults are physiologic and are not associated with hair loss. Follicept contains a physiologic concentration of IGF-1 that it delivers across the skin to the dermal papilla where IGF-1 receptors are expressed.

[follicept]

"DHT inhibits IGF-1 at the dermal papillae.[26] Extracellular histones inhibit hair shaft elongation and promote regression of hair follicles by decreasing IGF and alkaline phosphatase in transgenic mice.[27] Silencing P-cadherin, a hair follicle protein at adherens junctions, decreases IGF-1, and increases TGF beta 2, although neutralizing TGF decreased catagenesis caused by loss of cadherin, suggesting additional molecular targets for therapy. P-cadherin mutants have short, sparse hair.[28]"

The answer might be that even if there is plenty of IGF in the blood, dht is silencing it at the follicle. Perhaps delivering enough IGF directly to the follicle overrides this silencing action. There might be a lot of IGF in balding guys' blood precisely BECAUSE it is being suppressed in all the follicles. There's mysterious evidence for both IGF having a positive role for hair, and then a record of more IGF in balding scalp. there's surely a correlation, but as the kythera doc wrote to me yesterday, this does not imply causality. Just because bald guys have more IGF does not mean the IGF is causing the balding.

Agrees with what Dr. Hsu just told me, see my reply to Swooping.

[follicept]

Seems like Dr. Hsu also designed this:

http://www.amazon.com/Camellix-ReviT.../dp/B00ESZBNJA

So does green tea give back hair or was that a wrong research direction?

Different Dr. Stephen Hsu, haha! Hadn't heard of him before- no association.

[follicept]

Hey Follicept!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer the questions in this thread. Please dont let the odd morons scare you of. There are lots and lots of us out there that really appreciate what you are doing. So often we are forced to speculate about developments. You guys being approacheable about your research is awesome. Keep up the good work!

And to those people that think this is a snake oil. Well, if that is the case I have to say they have really earned their money. Not many snake oils salesmen would dedicate their career to doing research, hire a top scientist for a front, develop a band aid as a cover story, use the university of Florida as a cover for the entire operation and film a youtube video with their own face just to scam a few baldies.

Im not a scientist and I dont know if Follicept will work or not. But I do have half a brain and to anybode else with half a brain it is obvious that these guys believe in what they are doing.

Thanks for that! We know it's not the majority, and doesn't deter us. Ultimately, the results will determine it, and we won't sell anything until and unless we have good results, and we will publish negative results if not. Hang in there.