The North American Hair Research Society have shared their latest findings on hair follicle research, after the recent 9th World Congress for Hair Research.
The exciting, new research included:
– The role of the prostaglandins that promote or inhibit hair growth
– Regeneration of hair follicles from stem cells and the possibility to create new follicles (follicular neogenesis)
– New treatments for alopecia areata, the most common form of autoimmune hair loss
– Effects of laser light energy on hair growth
– New treatment approaches for androgenetic alopecia (male and female pattern hair loss) aimed at change the local follicular environment, reduce follicular stress, and enhancing local production of growth factors – all of which can influence hair growth.
The new research also revealed several promising hair loss treatments are in clinical trials – which means that they may soon be available to the public – including treatments that would work topically or systemically.
There is growing research interest in the hair follicle due to its ease of access for study, and the ability to perform research using a wide variety of model systems, including sophisticated imaging techniques to watch hair follicle growth in real-time.
The hair follicle is one of the three most proliferative organs, the others being bone marrow and G.I. track. With the greater understanding of hair cycling, cells outside the follicle that influence the cycle, auxiliary cells, inflammation, and other factors, major cross transfer of that knowledge to other organs and diseases will be possible, e.g., autoimmune disease, asthma and allergies.
Copies of the meeting summary will be published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology at http://www.hair2015.org
