Genetically Modified Epidermis Skin Replacement

Last month, I decided to stop covering medical items of interest in my once a month “brief items of interest” posts. However, this week there are two new interesting developments in the medical field that also have implications for hair regrowth.

— The first man to have his genes edited inside his body (US); and  successful skin epidermis replacement via gene modification (Germany). Both developments are major groundbreaking medical breakthroughs. Any skin replacement or skin regeneration success in humans will likely come with intact working new hair follicles.

— The world’s first head transplant between two dead people (corpses) has just taken place in China. It happened under the supervision of Dr. Xiaoping Ren (with input from Dr. Sergio Canavero), both of whom I have covered on this blog in the past. Since the procedure was undertaken between two cadavers (i.e., dead people), it is still not considered a proper head transplant. Dr. Canavero claims that the transplantation of a live human’s head to a deceased human’s still working body (i.e., a true “full body” transplant) is now imminent. Lots of coverage about this in the media today and continued skepticism (but significantly less so than in the past). Is Dr. Canavero just in it for the fame or is he for real?

And in Hair Research Updates:

Excellent effort by “Hellouser” in his updates from the recent World Congress for Hair Research. An absolute must read.

Dr. Rachita Dhurat is at it again. This time, her team makes the surprising conclusion that “A caffeine-based topical liquid should be considered as not inferior to minoxidil 5% solution in men with androgenetic alopecia“. There have been a number of studies over the years that suggest caffeine to beneficial towards hair growth. The stimulating effects of caffeine can reduce hair loss in some cases.

— Latest Aclaris patent grants covering baricitinib, decernotinib, ruxolitinib, and tofacitinib. It seems like all four can end up being used for treating androgenetic alopecia, especially tofacitinib.

— Reader “omg” posted a very interesting link today to a paper co-authored by renowned hair loss researchers Dr. Neil Saddick and Dr. Valerie Callender and others titled “New Insight Into the Pathophysiology of Hair Loss Trigger a Paradigm Shift in the Treatment Approach“. Lots of discussion in there about the role of inflammation in hair loss. The whole paper can be downloaded from the above link.

— Histogen and Dr. Gail Naughton covered in Allure Magazine. Key quote:

“The U.S. trials are planned to commence in 2018; we expect it to gain approval in Mexico first, perhaps in 2020, and then in the U.S. sometime after that”.

— UK male model Jeremy McConnell gets a hair transplant and beard transplant in Turkey.

94 thoughts on “Genetically Modified Epidermis Skin Replacement”

  1. Tofacitinin works wonders for AA, it seems. If Aclaris wants to trial it for AGA, they must be in the know that Tofa has potential. Otherwise, why bother burning cash in trials, when they can test Decernotinib instead?

    1. Doesn’t evolis professional target the same pathway? In that case, we don’t need to wait for the drug unless there’s a difference in efficacy.

  2. What’s the consensus on Minoxidil concentration we should be using? I’m just using the standard 2% solution for Men but from the research linked here, sounds like I should switch to the 5% solution (for women). Is that right?

    I’m also considering adding the Evolis professional product to the mix, since the study looked so promising. I also bought one bottle of the WNT product, though I don’t think I’ll continue it since even the study showed weak results. I’m also dropping Nizoral, due to possible resistance risks.

    Seems like I should try this caffeine based shampoo instead? The one studied is Alpecin, which is sold on Amazon. I wish the study had a 3rd control group, of Alpecin + Minoxidil, to know if it makes sense to use both. I hate this shotgun guessing approach.

    I’d love to regrow hair but I’d settle for saving what I’ve got, which is full head coverage but just thinned. Strangely, no pigment changes yet, just hair loss (at the age of 37). Would be nice to have normal feeling hair as well, as what I have feels thinner to me.

      1. Good old histogen haha. Well hopefully they actually pan out. I’m excited for jak.

        Anybody here use Rogaine foam for over a year with no results just thinning and switch to liquid with better results?

    1. Adam – if you are lucky enough to have full coverage, albeit thin, then you should buy some hair fibre spray that will definitely and instantly thicken your hair by almost 50% instead of bothering with these “what if” products that “may” give you a result you can see without a microscope, maybe after a few months.

      This is what I am now doing. The trouble is I have that horrible mouse brown hair colour that former blonde kids have and I am having trouble finding my shade.

  3. Never left a comment before.. but just want to vent my utter disappointment with histogen.

    2017 became ’18 then Q3 ’19 now ’20.

    Wow. Just… Wow.

    Gail is either incredibly liberal with dates and our hopes, or the worst business person of all time.

    1. 2017 to 2020 it not that bad in the scheme of things. Patients of the AIDS virus in the mid 80s were promised a vaccine within 2 years. These original patients are all now dead and more than 30 years later there is still no cure.

  4. Lol Histogen lagged their way into shiseido riken follica territory.. Admin Josiah zayner is actually the first recorded human to alter his genes months ago he filmed himself I dont know why or how the media missed out on that.

  5. Just LOOK at those comments on the guy who got the transplants.

    There is not one that does not insult and call him a loser for it.

    1. Ummm did you read the article and see his hair before? That guy is a loser and has mental problems. There was no need for a transplant, the guy is insane and a creep.

  6. From Histogen. This is key.

    “One factor, follistatin, allows dormant stem cells to shift into a new hair-growth cycle. Another, keratinocyte growth factor, causes cells to proliferate and grow, converting a baby hair into a mature hair or creating brand-new hair”.

  7. hate to admit I really like the AIDS comment above. indeed they were promised to have the cure within 2 years. been 40 years almost and still no cure.
    hair loss is even much older than AIDS. it ponders me if we can have something in our lifetime at all? just think about how old is this disease

    1. It’s always 2 to 5 yrs away and nothing. The bright side is at least they gave us Propecia to keep our hair for 10 yrs. You can now live pretty much a full life with aids since we have better TREATMENTS. No cure just treatments. So the next drug to hit the market will be a treatment probably better than Propecia. I’m going to guess JAK and follica will be the new Rogaine and prooecia. Tsuji in my opinion is way way down the road. I just don’t see how he can move his therapy to human trials so quickly without even growing a hair on a human scalp. Unless he is hiding something…..

      For everyone who has used Rogaine foam..have you switched to liquid with better results? I’m heading into nw3 territory while using foam. It hasn’t done anything these past 3 years…except hit my right side with telogen shock. It’s like half my scalp is thinner and whispy and the left side top is thick and nornal. Anyone make the switch to liquid with real results…foam hasn’t grown anything or even maintained much.

      1. I don’t understand how at this point, with it being said so often, that people don’t see how it’s possible for him to get this done so quickly.

        Japanese laws allow for it to be trialed and marketed this quickly.

        As for the “will it work in humans?” of course it will work in humans. Jahoda’s experiments proved it nearly 20 years ago, and experiments repeatedly show that human hair cells cause hair growth in mice. So human cells can grow hair in completely different animals, but not in humans?

        I know you said “in my opinion” and all that, but how can this BE your opinion? You’re a regular reader and poster of this kind of info.

        This is why I’ve stopped being a regular poster on the forums and such — a lot of these contrary “opinions” that go against facts that are common knowledge at this point simply exist to continue debate until something does come out.

      2. Man ive been on foam too for about 4 years and MY RIGHT SIDE is thinning faster too. Wtf is that about. Im sure its just coincidence but i didnt know that diffuse thinning could hit one half of the head faster than the other.

    2. In the printed form, hair loss treatment writings were present as far back as 1553 BC. This was found in the medical book entitled The Ebers Papyrus. Found in Egypt, this book described hair loss medicinal treatment, which included a bizarre mix of animal fat (lions, crocodiles, snakes and hippos) and other natural ingredients (onions, honey, iron oxide and red lead). It was suggested in this book that the potion would only be effective if the God of the Sun was prayed to prior to taking the potion.

  8. Instead of head transplants maybe they can focus on a Scalp Transplant?

    The only thing that has a chance by 2020 is JAK’s by Aclaris. And it will work. I think possible by late 2018. Almost home. And it will regrow 90% back, maybe 100%. All my opinion.

    1. How do you know that for sure ? Janus kinase inhibitor can’t do with accelerated DP cells senescence associated with AGA (which has been observed many times), it’s like rubbing a drug that can make you magically reverse the aging process, not gonna happen, 90% to 100% is ridiculous, some hair loss due to AGA is irreversible, always have been

    2. Nasa I agree that jak will work on the inflammation angle of hairloss. I get scalp burn, itch at times and dandruff. I think jak will regrow a lot but not a full on total regrowth. Maybe a few Norwoods at best. I just dont see anything giving a nw7 to a nw1 in our lifetime. Too many false hopes since Propecia release. I still think they have a cure like many other diseases but it won’t ever see the light of day. Money is our enemy here and corporate greed. You took profits out of the equation I honestly believe mpb, cancer, aids, acne and the common cold, stds, would be cured long time ago.

      1. But you say “a few Norwood’s” like that’s nothing. If you are NW7 and this can get you to NW4 or NW5 even – THEN you can have a reasonable outcome with transplant. Hair transplant is a satisfactory solution for me personally, if only I wasn’t diffusing in a NW6 pattern.

        1. I agree hanging in there. I wish it can reverse that many norwoods. I meant to say it will grow hair back many norwoods buy not thick dense hair. Maybe a thin coverage. I’m losing hair diffuse as well. It ducks because I would totally just get 2,000 grafts to fill in the right side of my head and be done with it.

      1. hellouser and histogen Gail she said “mexico 2017 winter it will be at market” now she is saying by 2020 in mexico then into US.

        really?! lol wow

        1. They need money. I am 100% sure the science is solid. I think investors worry about the fact the compound is not really proprietary ssince its natural cell secretions.

          1. The fact that they need money may prove the science is NOT solid. The potential investors have done due diligence and their scientific advisors have gone over it with a comb (no joke intended) and warned them off.

            This is why I am a fan of Replicel. Shiseido backing them up with millions and even making a purpose built facility to complete and trial the product proves there must be something in it. Shiseido have the fire power to finance all the supposed players in this game. Why did they not do this to cover all the bases? It’s pocket change to them. Why did Shiseido back only Replicel but leave the other inventors to starve?

            1. Follistatin works for sure. Try the topical and you will see it work on your skin. Try raising it in your body and youll see it work in your hair.

  9. Hi champy…no its not a coincidence I think the foam is crap. I’m going to stop using it. My right hairline all the way to the crown is 10x more thin diffuse than the left. It looks weird. I’m going to do the liquid and pray it thickens back up. My hair line never minitiarized. The hairs on the right hairline just tipped over like it was being choacked and fell off to never return again. The left side is untouched. I apply foam on right side and left side and crown. Where ever I applied it it is now thinner than everywhere else. I never applied it to the top of my head and the top is fine. We need better treatments asap! I’m balding in a weird abnormal way after 12 years of success with propecia.

    1. Thanks mjones, thought i was going crazy. My right side looks flat and my head appears lopsided.
      Glad (but sad) to hear its not just me. I do like the coarseness the foam gives so i may use that in the morning, but i guess ill apply liquid at night

  10. Sounds silly at first, but I believe histogen wants these big players to come out with their product and then hers will bolster or boost the results. I think Gails product alone would dissapoint those with aggressive mph similiar to prp and it wouldn’t justify the price. But in combo with other new products it should work well imo.

  11. Anybody here use Spectral DNC? I’m debating to either switch to Rogaine liquid or try spectral dnc from Rogaine foam. Been on foam and it did nothing but thin my hairline.

  12. @Mjones, I had the same happen to me when I switched from Kirkland liquid minox to Scalp Med. My whole right side from hairline and back is 50% thinner than the left side. I color my hair every month and only the side would burn each time. Since I switched back to liquid minox about 8 months now, I don’t have the burn anymore but my right is still much thinner. Kirkland liquid minox works great for me.

  13. “Hair regeneration by regenerative hair follicle transplantation was able to regenerate hair at a density equal to or higher than the density of human head hair (120 lines / cm 2)”

    Riken team
    fingers crossed

  14. Waiting and champy…did the thinning stop or stabilize on your right side when you went back on Rogaine liquid. If I can the right side to stop thinking I will be happy. Crazy how this foam ruins hairline. If liquid can restore 10% back I can style it normally again but I think I’ll need fue now to fix right hairline. As Paul phoenix says..”we need better treatments asap”

    1. I haven’t made the switch yet so there has been no stabilization for me. To be sure both sides are thinning, but my left side used to be thinner and now the right side has surpassed the left as far as loss goes. But overall its getting thinner everywhere, just a little faster on the right side now. Ive noticed this about a year ago but never heard anyone else mention it until now

  15. I remain hopeful with these developments, but in the end people in decades to come may look back at these “treatments” in the same way as the Victorian scientists who tried desperately to turn copper into gold.

    1. yeah well scientist didn’t know about sperm during the founding of the united states, it took frogs to figure that out. meaning yes, Newton had no idea where babies came from. You cannot compare scientist today to similarities in the past, it’s just an irrelevant way of perceiving reality there is no comparison.

  16. The PolarityTE (COOL) stock price is up about 700% in the past year. If those investors see their new skin product as a legit breakthrough, then there’s a good chance it’s the real deal. If so, they can easily tweak their product for a scalp configuration in a very short time period, and that’s the cure for unlimited follicles that cannot be squelched by the establishment hair loss industry. Let’s pray COOL is for real, because it doesn’t need clinical trials and is the fastest route to a full head of hair IMO.

    1. We can change the size of regenerated follicular primordium or control the density in grafting.  Therefore, based on the results we have, it is said that in case of a human being, there are about 60 to 120 hairs growing in an area of 1cm2… and we can easily control that with our technologies.

      1. It’s more like 200 to 250 hairs per cm2. If it’s 60 lol then we would all be walking around diffuse. This data concerns me. Follica can produce 100cm2. If tsuji is doing the same then that’s a problem. The human scalp has 100 to 150k hairs. We need more than 120cm2 to have thick normal density. 100cm2 is great don’t get me wrong but not sure if that would be enough to show an illusion of full head of hair. The fact that tsuji states 60 to 100 hairs per cm2 is worrisome since that’s obviously wrong for full cure. Unless I’m reading something wrong.

          1. Hey buddy nothing new that I know of as yet. Supposedly they are starting pivotal trial phase 3 in Q1 2018. So that’s a good sign. Let’s hope it’s short trial and completed by late summer ir Autumn 2018.

            1. Mjones follicles shrink in AGA meaning quantity is less important than size right? If they can control the size of the follicular bulb that sounds like a positive thing. Furthermore at the end of the day you and I – and every other god bitten realist can all agree that Tsuji RIKEN “organ cloning” labs = exactly that – organ cloning. Cloning edited resized follicular bulbs immune to androgen shrinking follicular miniturization and transplanting them on top of the head right? Theoretically that means infinity why would they offer a 60-120 cm2 proportion it just doesn’t make sense to me.

              I am just as keen as slick and admin on PolarityTE it’s maddening they have no response. They can clone full layer skin with hairs in tact and have no word on AGA – thats just insane to me. HelloUser should fly a crowdfunded interview to their headquarters and ask the obvious.

              it’s a big mystery to me this whole thing, i might as well be in a daze listening to x-files theme song staring out the window.

              1. Egghead buddy…I totally agree. This hair loss industry is corrupt! We have been in the game long enough to see it. There is no way that they haven’t found better treatments since the 90s of propecia. Money and corporate greed is our enemy not AGA. They are stopping and blocking better solutions. Why go to Tsuji for 60cm2 when cots will do double that with 10x less the cost and we can just drive to our local dermatologist office. All I know is that there were better treatments in the pipeline that probably worked very very very well aka intercytex, OSH101 etc that were just shelved. Now if Jak, sisheido and follica hit the fan and only prp and topical fin are the latest treatments then you have your answer. I just wish prp worked as well as they claimed. Technically it should!

                1. Mjones, I sometimes wonder this myself, how on earth is there no proper cure/treatment in 2017? It makes financial sense for a company to hold off on a total cure and just drip-feed a treatment over decades. I’m not saying that is the case in any way, but I wouldn’t be too surprised either. As for PRP. I’ve tried it. Did sweet FA for me. Cost a bomb too. I wouldn’t recommend it. I don’t know anybody who has responded to it?

                  1. Whats FA? Yeah I don’t know anyone who grew hair from prp either. Sucks man, you would think prp would be a curd like solution and all.

                    1. Sweet F@#* All. It’s Aussie for “did absolutely nothing”! Ha. In Melbourne Australia Sinclair Dermatology did a trial on patients using PRP. They eventually scrapped it because it’s useless. (Wish I had known that before I tried it). I truly hope that Propecia and Minoxidil are not the only two options still on offer in 20 years time. How sad would that be?!

    1. No it’s not.. they said lithium gluconate didn’t have much effect and that a topical PG (latanoprost) was even more effective than minoxidil and dermabrasion

  17. @Anon Giant: please tell us how you came to that treatent protocal conclusion for follica? Many including myself believe minoxidil will unfortunately be in the mix. Thank you

  18. I’m very impressed Polaryte. Growing back skin is awesome. Burn victims have it the worst. I’m wondering if ht doctors could use this skin growing thing to replace donor scars and grow new follicles? Wouldn’t that ultimately be unlimited donor supply? Cut out 6k grafts…replace donor strip with Polaryte then a month later replace that skin with new skin and follicles..repeat 7x to get 30k hairs and boom you are full head again. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking…

  19. Spontaneous hair follicle germ (HFG) formation in vitro, enabling the large-scale production of HFGs for regenerative medicine.

    Abstract
    Hair follicle morphogenesis is triggered by reciprocal interactions between hair follicle germ (HFG) epithelial and mesenchymal layers. Here, we developed a method for large-scale preparation of HFGs in vitro via self-organization of cells. We mixed mouse epidermal and mouse/human mesenchymal cells in suspension and seeded them in microwells of a custom-designed array plate. Over a 3-day culture period, cells initially formed a randomly distributed single cell aggregate and then spatially separated from each other, exhibiting typical HFG morphological features. These self-sorted hair follicle germs (ssHFGs) were shown to be capable of efficient hair-follicle and shaft generation upon intracutaneous transplantation into the backs of nude mice. This finding facilitated the large-scale preparation of approximately 5000 ssHFGs in a microwell-array chip made of oxygen-permeable silicone. We demonstrated that the integrity of the oxygen supply through the bottom of the silicone chip was crucial to enabling both ssHFG formation and subsequent hair shaft generation. Finally, spatially aligned ssHFGs on the chip were encapsulated into a hydrogel and simultaneously transplanted into the back skin of nude mice to preserve their intervening spaces, resulting in spatially aligned hair follicle generation. This simple ssHFG preparation approach is a promising strategy for improving current hair-regenerative medicine techniques.
    Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. And guys and girls, if you go back to one of the original cotsarelis dermabrasion discovery videos you will see the words “AZT azidothymidine” flashing in the back ground. Surprised no one has talked about this. Very intrigueing.

  21. Hi Admin. Long time no talk. Did you hear about the breakthrough at the South Korean University.. Inhibiting a protein and getting miniaturized hairs to grow again…???

  22. Hasson Wong topical fin.
    Thank you for your inquiry.

    At this time the topical formula is only available to patients living in Canada or the EU. There are only two pharmacies compounding this formula at this time.
    The doctors are working on having the formula available worldwide but at this time they are not sure when that will be.
    If there is anything further I can help you with please let me know.

    awesome

  23. it also turns out PolarityTE is well aware of the AGA issue because people on forums and possibly this one have been bothering them the last few months about it. Their obvious non-announcement official statement is that they have not made any announcements yet.

    1. I bet 100 bucks that polaryte will have to go through clinical trials for mpb treatment lol. But growing skin in a lab doesn’t require it.

  24. Admin or others,

    Has anyone heard any updates on Histogen. I heard they indicated in an inside investor presentation that they have now been delayed to 2019 in Mexico.. Someone posted this on hairlosstalk but the link was taken down. Can anyone confirm if this is true?

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