Mother of all treatments could cure baldness, and banish stretch marks!

May 3 2005

A new discovery by scientists might just be the 'mother of all treatments' in promising a treatment for balding men, women with stretchmarks and anyone who has gum disease.

As cure-alls-ills go, an injection of fibroblasts may be the ultimate cure. 50 patients are to undergo clinical trials in London with the new technology which is being developed by Isolagen, a Texas-based biotech company.

Fibroblasts are tiny cells that control levels of the proteins collagen and elastin, which are found in skin, bones and other tissue. To treat burns, the scientists take cells from an undamaged area, extract the fibroblasts and multiply them in the laboratory before injecting them back into the patient.

Fibroblasts have been used for several years to rejuvenate faces and injecting them into areas affected by stretch marks has, in some cases, made them disappear completely.

When they been taken from the hairy part of a man’s scalp and injected into the bald or thinning patch it has been shown to cure baldness in the laboratory. It is not known yet if this will lead to a product being developed for baldness.

Mark Lewis, of University College London, said that the cells were very clever at knowing what to do in the body.