24. June 2004 09:39
Researcher Kevin McElwee -- one of only a few people in the world who hold a doctoral degree in hair biology -- thinks a cure for baldness that uses the technique of hair cloning could be commercially available within 10 years.
Hair cloning is a slang term for engineered hair growth. The process involves isolating a group of cells at the base of the hair follicle -- the living part of hair rooted in the skin. Once the follicular cells are multiplied in a laboratory, they can then be implanted back into the donor’s scalp where they divide to create new follicles and generate new hair.
A sample of about 10 hairs could produce several million cultured cells, which, in turn, could grow several thousand hairs.
Scientists have been studying hair cloning in animal models for a few years, but McElwee is the first investigator to demonstrate exactly how cloning works.
“Now that we have proof of how this process works, we can accelerate the research toward creating a limitless supply of hair -- in effect, a cure for baldness,” says the 34-year-old.
While early results are promising, he estimates it will take almost a decade of further study, clinical trials and meeting regulatory requirements before cloning is widely available.
Common or pattern balding affects about 20 per cent of men in their 20s. By age 50, about half the male population and 20 per cent of women have problems with baldness or hair thinning.
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