Posted on 06/08/2023 11:45:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
Hair Growth
Northwestern Medicine scientists found that the stiffness of aging hair follicle stem cells hinders hair growth. They discovered that softening these cells using a tiny RNA, miR-205, stimulates hair growth in mice. Future experiments will test whether topically delivered miR-205 can promote hair growth potentially in humans.
Softening stiff hair follicle stem cells with a microRNA regrows hair.
Regulating cell mechanics stimulates hair growth in mice
Next step will be testing if delivering microRNA via nanoparticles grows hair Potential for human hair growth
Just as people’s joints can get stiff as they age and make it harder for them to move around, hair follicle stem cells also get stiff, making it harder for them to grow hair, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.
But if the hair follicle’s stem cells are softened, they are more likely to produce hair, the scientists found.
Northwestern scientists discovered how to soften up those stem cells to enable them to grow hair again. In a study in mice published recently in the journal PNAS, the investigators report that they can soften the stem cells by boosting the production of a tiny RNA, miR-205, that relaxes the hardness of the cells. When scientists genetically manipulated the stem cells to produce more miR-205, it promoted hair growth in young and old mice.
“They started to grow hair in 10 days,” said corresponding author Rui Yi, the Paul E. Steiner Research Professor of Pathology and professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “These are not new stem cells being generated. We are stimulating the existing stem cells to grow hair. A lot of times we still have stem cells, but they may not be able to generate the hair.
“Our study demonstrates the possibility of stimulating hair growth by regulating cell mechanics. Because of the potential to deliver microRNA by nanoparticles directly into the skin, next we will test whether topically delivered miR-205 can stimulate hair growth first in mice. If successful, we will design experiments to test whether this microRNA can promote hair growth potentially in humans.”
This study was conducted in genetically engineered mouse models. The scientists used advanced microscopy tools, including atomic force microscopy, to measure the stiffness and two-photon microscopy to monitor cell behaviors in live animals.
Reference:
“MicroRNA-205 promotes hair regeneration by modulating mechanical properties of hair follicle stem cells” by Jingjing Wang, Yuheng Fu, Wenmao Huang, Ritusree Biswas, Avinanda Banerjee, Joshua A. Broussard, Zhihai Zhao, Dongmei Wang, Glen Bjerke, Srikala Raghavan, Jie Yan, Kathleen J. Green and Rui Yi, 22 May 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2220635120
Other Northwestern authors include Jingjing Wang, Yuheng Fu, and Kathleen Green.
This study was funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases grants AR066703, AR071435, AR043380, AR041836, and P30AR075049 of the National Institutes of Health.
I am all for this. We must direct all labs to create a pill that will grow hair!
I wonder if the microRNA will grow hair everywhere and we look like Bigfoot?
Not me. I really don't care about my hair that's what hats are for. But if it could make me loose 25 pounds I will consider it.
Low carb or Keto diet is a lot safer than drugs for that.
And it’s not hard to stick to, especially if you like meat.
A lot of bald guys do some pretty desperate things so I don’t doubt there will be some willing to take an mRNA injection.
“some are just very macho looking”
Well, they say baldness is caused by too much testosterone. I don’t think it’s true, but they say it :)
When young, for a while I was almost madly attracted to a bald man. He looked sort of like Dwayne Johnson, without the over-built physique. (I’ve never found that attractive in men.)
Rub it around one’s butthole where the ingrown hairs are. Then transplant them to the scalp. I always wanted to see myself in an afro.
Guess I should sell my stock in Hims.com and Bosley.com and other hair transplant companies. I thought about hair transplants when they created the FUE (2-3 hairs) as I started receding at 65. Now, I just don’t care at 73. However, this could be a wonder treatment for men losing hair in their 20’s and 30’s.
LOL, food is not the problem its the wine. When they come up with a sugar/carb free wine I will look like a Rockstar again.
That’s kind of a disgusting post...
If you’re on Keto for about a week, a moderate amount of dry red wine won’t knock you out of ketosis, in my experience.
(You have to stay away from beer, though.)
I started losing my hair in my 30’s. I fretted and and worried over it. Now at 68, I just don’t give a rat’s ass.................
Wow, in your 30’s. Bummer. I had full beautiful hair for most of my life, even when I wore it long in biker days. Once the front started receding (no crown problems as yet), I figured I lucked out and so be it.
We had one guy in HS that went bald at 18. He looked like a carbon copy of his dad.....................
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