Category Archives: PRP

Allergan, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, PGD2, PGE2, Platelet-Rich Plasma, Prostaglandin D2, Prostaglandin E2, PRP

Allergan Purchases Kythera Biopharmaceuticals

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Allergan Purchases Kythera

The biggest news so far this month is Allergan’s purchase of Kythera Biopharmaceuticals yesterday. While Allergan is largely known for its blockbuster Botox product, the company’s Bimatoprost product is what we hair loss sufferers care about. While Kythera’s most well known product is its recently approved ATX-101 (brand name Kybella) china fat reducing topical product, the company’s Setipiprant product is what we hair loss sufferers care about.

Bimatoprost is essentially (but not exactly) a prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) analog and Setipiprant is a prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) antagonist. The latter holds far greater potential to be a cure for hair loss compared to the former. A combination treatment with the two drugs (i.e, increase PGE2 and decrease PGD2) has in the past been postulated to be the perfect treatment to regrow hair. I would urge all blog readers to listen to this encouraging audio segment on Setipiprant from an investor call earlier this year.

PRP and Hair Loss Updates

— An interesting article on Dr. Joseph Yaker in Texas using PRP along with stem cells derived from a donor’s placenta to treat hair loss.

— The renowned Dr. John Cole is planning to do a major study on the effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. The PRP treatment will entail three sessions (once a month for three months) costing a total of $750, an absolute steal. Moreover, it seems like Dr. Cole will even refund that $750 if you show up for a follow-up session 6-12 months after the first set of injections. Dr. Cole will test many different treatment protocols, including using a variety of extracellular matrix (ECM) products and activation methods.

PRP is still fairly new when it comes to the hair loss world, with many significant differences in methodology and ingredients existing between different doctors and hair transplant surgeons. Such a study needed to be done a few years ago. If you do volunteer for this study, please make sure you know exactly what Dr. Cole will inject into your scalp. He is very well respected and unlikely to do anything even remotely risky, but when you are injecting something into your scalp, it is best to be very cautious.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— A new study finds that keeping PGE2 levels high in mice by reducing 15-PGDH promotes tissue regeneration. It seems like PGE2 has many benefits besides hair growth.

— A groundbreaking new $25 blood test called VirScan that can tell you every virus you have had. An average person has been exposed to 10 of the 206 known viruses that infect humans.

— An update on the patient who might get a full body transplant (always inaccurately referred to as a head transplant by the media).

— Since I already covered the above story several times this year, the one on a Chinese surgeon who has performed 1,000 head transplants in mice and plans to move on to monkeys next is more interesting. Albeit revolting and slightly discouraging since the mice usually only survived for minutes, with the record being 10 days.

The excellent WSJ article with a video on this requires a subscription. I did not realize the now obvious conclusion that a full body transplant would be revolutionary when it comes to most types of cancer treatment. However, even I do not foresee a successful long-lasting full body transplant in a human for many decades to come. Nevertheless, what an insane era we are living through.

Jeffrey Rapaport, Platelet-Rich Plasma, PRP

PRP Goes Mainstream on TV

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I have covered platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy for hair loss a number of times on this blog before. Initially, I was very skeptical about this whole concept, especially since a number of hair transplant surgeons have written about lack of results after their own experimentation. However, during the past year, my opinions have changed slightly as I have:

  • Seen informative pro-PRP and hair growth related videos and forum posts from eminent surgeons such as Dr. Ken Anderson, Dr. John Cole, Dr. Jerry Cooley, Dr. Joseph Greco, Dr. Sam Lam, Dr. Robert Niedbalski, Dr. Jeffrey Rapaport and Dr. Ken Williams among many others.
  • Read a few new published studies in support of PRP for hair loss. Most importantly, these PRP and hair growth related studies have come from many different countries, implying lesser chances of bias and implying potentially successful outcomes across all races of people.

I have therefore decided to give this subject more serious consideration and coverage on this blog. It seems like the way in which a clinic makes its platelet-rich plasma can drastically impact the final results (or lack thereof). I will write more on that in future posts, including analysis of the growth factors involved in the plasma.

For now, the below linked videos are worth checking out. The first is a segment that appeared last week on ABC’s popular Good Morning America (GMA) program. While PRP that is used for medical applications has been covered in numerous TV programs in recent years, it is rare for PRP for hair loss to get this kind of coverage on national TV in the US.

Here are the relevant links: ABC GMA 2 and ABC GMA 3.

The physician in the ABC video segment is Dr. Jeffrey Rapaport, and he has a great video on YouTube about this subject. He even shows us before and after photos of PRP injections into his own balding crown, 19 mins into the video.

The last part of the video is really interesting, and Dr. Rapaport thinks that PRP for hair loss is going to become huge in the coming years. He even opines that many people with limited hair loss will delay or avoid hair transplants and instead come for these PRP injections several times a year.