Kerastem: Adipose (Fat) Tissue and Hair Growth

Update: April 24, 2019 — Kerastem reported positive Phase II trial results for hair growth.

Update: Kerastem’s  website has been revamped and has before and after photos if you scroll down, as well as links to clinics outside the US (e.g., see Japan Kerastem Clinic) where the treatment is already available. Also, on July 28th 2015, the company obtained conditional FDA approval to commence phase II clinical trials.


On this blog, I have discussed the relationship between hair cells and fat cells numerous times.

Kerastem

One thing missing in the above three posts was a private sector company working on a cure for hair loss based on using adipose (fat) tissue. That wait has now come to an end. Last week, a relatively new San Diego based company named Kerastem Technologies submitted a request to commence STYLE clinical trials in order to:

“Evaluate the safety and feasibility of the Celution and Puregraft Systems in the processing and preparation of an autologous fat graft enriched with adipose-derived regenerative cells (ADRCs) in the treatment of early alopecia androgenetica.”

The above link to the clinical trials page has a contact person’s e-mail address on there that I will not publish here. This contact person is Dr. Eric Daniels, Kerastem’s chief medical officer.

Note that adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are a subset of adipose-derived regenerative cells (ADRCs).

FYI — A Kerastem company video is embedded at the bottom of this post.

Celution & Puregraft Systems

The Celution system is manufactured by a San Diego based company called Cytori Therapeutics. The US  FDA approved and EU CE-Marked Puregraft system was also developed by Cytori, but divested in 2013 to Bimini Technologies. I recommend watching the Puregraft video on youtube. I am now starting to look at my body fat in a less negative way. Maybe it will end up being more useful than I thought!

Ken Washenik is Involved

One of the world’s most renowned hair loss researchers (that I have covered a few times on this blog) Dr. Ken Washenik is involved in this clinical trial via being the principle investigator. This adds significant credence to these trials, although it should be noted that

Dr. Washenik has been overly optimistic about a hair loss cure in the past. For example, see my post on Aderans’ Failure or read some of the overly optimistic time-frame related quotes by him in this 2004 article.

Bimini, Puregraft & Kerastem

It should be noted that Bimini, Puregraft and Kerastem are all interlinked, with Bimini seemingly the holding company. The founder and CEO of Puregraft, Bradford Conlan, is also the CEO of Kerastem and Bimini per his current Linkedin profile. For our analysis purposes, these three companies are one and the same entity.

Dr. Eric Daniels and Dr. Craig Ziering

Earlier, I mentioned Kerastem’s chief medical Dr. Eric Daniels as the contact person for these trials. Further research on him led to my finding that he presented a paper titled “Hair Follicle Stimulation by Stromal Vascular Fraction Enhanced Adipose Transplantation” in 2014 at an International Federation for Adipose Therapeutics and Science (IFATS) Conference.

Although I could not find that paper online, google gave me a link to a thread where it says 40 percent hair regrowth per early results, It seems like Dr. Craig Ziering was another author of that same paper. So now I should take Dr. Ziering and his work on stem cells more seriously in spite of the recent issues with his website. I wonder if he already has access to the tried and tested Celution and Puregraft systems, giving him a leg up on other hair doctors offering early stem cell treatments?

San Diego, a Biotech Hub

San Diego has become a hotbed of global biotechnology related research, and the hair loss world is no exception. Kerastem is the fourth San Diego based company that is now listed in the worldwide listing of hair loss research centers on this site. The other three are Histogen, Samumed and Sanford-Burnham.

Timeline

Per the comments to this post and on various hair loss forums, it seems like some people are overly pessimistic about the timeline for ADSC and ADRC type treatments. Surgeons around the world are already treating patients with ADSC, AAPE and PRP. This kind of treatment will not take too long to come to fruition.

Sebaceous Glands, Gynecomastia and other Hair News

Sebaceous Glands and other Hair News

— An interesting human study from Japan about the increase in sebaceous gland area (but not size) in patients suffering from androgenic alopecia.

— Some hair loss sufferers who take Finasteride complain about getting gynecomastia (man boobs) as a side effect. Usually, this side effect is transient or minimal, but in some rare cases, it can be quite bad and lead to major growth in breast size. Several weeks ago, Reddit user Wulfgar1  started an ask me anything (AMA) about his gynecomastia surgery. He included quite impressive before and after photos, and answered almost all of the 100s of questions that were asked of him. Note that Wulfgar1 had gynecomastia since the age of 12, so his man boobs were not due to taking Finasteride.

Histogen filed form D for equity financing and raised about $10 million in funding. The filing took place on June 29th, but I read about it this week. Nothing too interesting or impressive other than the company name and its significance to us in the hair loss world. Glad to read that Histogen is still kicking. Biotech companies usually sell around three-quarters of their offering, but Histogen managed to sell 100 percent of its offering, which may be a sign of investor trust and confidence.

— I discussed Dr. Carlos Wesley and his  revolutionary PiloFocus  scarless hair transplant surgery last year after he was profiled in an excellent article in Verge magazine. Dr. Wesley has now managed to get detailed coverage in the prestigious BBC website’s future section.

More favorable feedback on ARTAS, including a video. Dr. Thomas Griffin seems like a sincere doctor. I like his description of the newly added PRP at his practice: “what we’re trying to do is maximize our results for our patients.” Some doctors will delude patients into thinking that PRP means guaranteed hair growth.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— Fascinating article on CRISPR DNA editing.

— A Chinese girl suffering from hypertrichosis (an extreme level of excessive body hair) is raising funds for laser hair removal. A bit unusual that the least hairy race on earth has such cases. Also see the ending to my post from last year on whether Asians are more evolved than other races.

— A good summary of 30 futuristic breakthroughs that happened during the first half of 2015. I like the heavy focus on medical breakthroughs rather than on less interesting breakthroughs that will just give us better, faster, cheaper or newer “stuff”.

Theranos’ fingerprick blood test gets FDA approval. This company is likely to revolutionize blood testing in the coming years. Also this month, the company obtained FDA approval that will lead to at-home testing. The company’s CEO Elizabeth Holmes is the youngest female billionaire in the US. Theranos is a very secretive privately-held company, and its Board of Directors is filled with retired government officials. Including major ones such as Henry Kissinger and William Perry.