About 40% of men and 20% of women over 50 are affected by hair loss and they can only hope to regenerate their hair back through hair transplantation. Propecia and Regaine are two clinically proven hair loss treatments for men which have shown significant results in clinical trials however they are still not a substitute for hair regeneration.
The Hair transplantation does not seem to be everyone’s choice though because of a number of factors. First of all it costs a fortune, secondly extensive tissues are required which are obtained by removing a large section of scalp resulting in significant scar. The complex hair transplantation process takes place during two to eight hours and requires a lengthy recovery period during which patient may experience bleeding, pain or swelling of the scalp. The conventional hair transplantation also suffers from the insufficient number of available transplant-able hair follicles.
The UK based Intercytex seems to bring a totally new and revolutionary hair treatment method that is less problematic and reduces the trauma suffered by the patient dramatically. The ICX-TRC procedure which is in research phase at the moment, uses cell therapy and cloning for hair treatment. Only a small amount of tissue is taken from the patient’s scalp during a 30 minute operation. Over three weeks of time, the disassociated DP cells from the follicle are cultured and expanded. Later on these cultured cells are injected into patient’s scalp in close proximity to the epidermal cells which generate the hair. This superficial injection of cultured cells into the scalp causes far less tissue damage than implanting multiple hair follicles and is a considerably simpler, shorter and less painful process.
The treatment phase of a Phase II trial, being conducted by Dr Bessam Farjo in Manchester, to optimise the delivery of the DP cells, has been completed and 24 week data on all subjects participating in the trial will be available in September 2008. This could bring a new ray of hope in the people suffering from hair loss and by the end of 2008, the world might see a new revolution in hair loss treatment making conventional hair transplantation completely a thing of the past.
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