A new stem cell therapy has given promising results for bald people who are hoping to regrow their hair.
The treatment is a topical solution and research has shown that it's given regrowth to people with a common type of baldness called androgenetic alopecia - also known as 'male pattern baldness' or 'female pattern baldness' - which is caused by genetic, hormonal and environmental factors.
This type of baldness is reported to affect around half of all men, and an estimated 45 percent of women over 50 - and while some people are happy enough to lose their locks, others would prefer to find a safe way to grow them back.
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And so, to South Korea, where expert Professor Sang Yeoup Lee of the Family Medicine Clinic and Research Institute of Convergence of Biomedical Science and Technology at Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital says he may have the answer.
They trialled 38 patients with the new solution for 16 weeks, and said that after just eight weeks the phototrichogram tests showed an increase in hair count - or to put it in simpler terms, those in the trial group who had started to go bald had visible improvement.
The adipose-derived stem cell constituent extract topical solution (ADSCS) is made using a special type of stem cell that gives off growth hormones.
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The study, which was published in Stem Cells Translation Medicine, aimed to find out how helpful the solution could be for middle aged men.
The results showed that ADSCS could become a potential treatment for hair regrowth in those who have androgenetic alopecia as it helped with hair density and the thickness of the hair.
The study's authors said: "We aimed to identify whether topical ADSC-CE application could help hair growth in humans. Our results demonstrated that ADSC-CE significantly increased hair count and density compared with the vehicle in both males and females with AGA.
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"This method may allow for better absorption of the stem cell content into the scalp than that if they had intact cell membrane.
"We suggest that application of the ADSC-CE solution directly to the scalp can function as a potential and optional agent in AGA treatment and may also be used as an add-on therapy with either finasteride or minoxidil, while maintaining treatment safety."
Featured Image Credit: Szilárd Szabó/PixabayTopics: World News