Hair Loss Cure 2020

Kerastem Update

Kerastem STYLE phase II clinical trial results update. Somewhat positive news of 17 percent increase in hair count at 6 months post-treatment. However, they only treated men in the early stages of hair loss (Norwood Scale I to III).

Wounding and Hair Growth

New hair from wounding. — Single hair follicle regeneration after wounding in elderly man.

Reader “omg” posted an interesting link to a study from Taiwan with a great title: “Never too old to regenerate (hair)”. The researchers report on an 80 year old man who regrew 1 brand new pigmented black hair after scalp wounding due to excision of a basal cell carcinoma.

Yet more evidence in support of wounding, the main idea behind the work of well known company Follica. The new (or regenerated old) hair remained black at the 42-month time of follow-up. I do not think the claim that the researchers make that this is the world’s first case of wounding led hair growth in human skin is true.

Other Hair News this Month

— A potential improvement in current hair regeneration technology from Japan via self-sorted hair follicle germs (ssHFGs). I visualize an image of ant collaboration (which creeps me out a bit), each time I read that term. Dr. Junji Fukuda who I have covered on this blog before is a lead author. Update: A new article on this development came out on February 1, 2018.

— Dr. Takashi Tsuji was back in the news a couple of weeks ago. He is leading a Japanese team that includes RIKEN researchers that will develop technology to analyze human health ramifications of changes in people’s hair shape and quality. According to Dr. Tsuji, some research indicates that certain changes in human hair components are unique to people with diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Perhaps in future one can detect cancer earlier depending on hair analysis.

— Discussion about Donald Trumps’s hair never seems to get old when it comes to the major newspapers. I previously discussed Mr. Trump’s usage of Finasteride as well as a 10 page detailed article on his hair. Now come news that his daughter Ivanka has claimed that Donald Trump has had scalp reduction surgery.

— Hair transplants could cure migraines in some per Turkish surgeon Dr. Safvet Ors. Actual study was published a few months ago despite major newspapers only covering the development more recently.

— Topical Tofacitinib 2% ointment at least moderately effective in 3 of 10 patients suffering from alopecia areata. Dr. Brett King led the study. Hopefully, Aclaris will see better results for male pattern hair loss sufferers with their topical JAK product when it finally comes out. Fingers crossed.

PolarityTE.

I first covered the exciting new company known as PolarityTE in the middle of last year. The company was in the news a lot in 2017, primarily because of its miraculous skin regeneration product: “SkinTE”. The new skin is also supposedly able to produce intact new fully functioning hair follicles.

However, in that original post, I pointed out a negative article dated June 7, 2017. It was published on SeekingAlpha (with research conducted by a company called Cliffside Research) that took a critical view of PolarityTE. Their conclusion was that COOL shares had an “at least 64% downside from current valuation“. On that date, the stock was worth $18. As of today, it is worth a little over $23.
Funnily enough, exactly 6 months later, on December 7, 2017, SeekingAlpha published another negative article about PolariytTE. This time the research was conducted by a company called Hindenburg Investment Research. Their conclusion was even more dramatic: “We believe the common equity is likely worthless“.

It seems like Hindenburg Research does not even have a website, while both Hindenburg and Cliffside have few Twitter followers. The latter is often an indication of influence and longevity of existence. I originally thought that Seeking Alpha was a reputable website in the investment world. However, upon further research, I found that Seeking Alpha’s content is derived via crowdsourcing.

Hopefully, the financial experts who visit this blog can help us better understand the validity of the above two negative conclusions. As I mentioned in my original post on PolarityTE last year, the company’s key staff members are extremely well qualified. They all have impeccable medical and surgical experience credentials.

PolarityTE Rapidly Marches Forward

Just a week after the second of the above two negative opinions about PolarityTE was published (albeit from anonymous online contributors), the company announced the application of its SkinTE product on actual human patients at multiple medical centers. A great surprise for us in the hair loss world who are so used to only seeing initial mice based trials.

Moreover, just one week after the above announcement, on December 20, 2017 PolarityTE announced the creation of a new 200,000 square feet corporate headquarters.

Developing a Hair Restoration Product

And I saved the best news of all for last.

The only reason that I even covered PolarityTE in the first place last year is because I wondered if their hair-bearing damaged skin replacement technology could also be used on balding scalps. In order to replace perfectly normal undamaged skin for the sole purpose of growing new hair follicles. PolarityTE has mentioned on its website that this is an area of interest to them with great potential.

More recently:

One of the main images on the SkinTE section of PolarityTE’s website (image titled “manufacturing-process”) now shows a bald man. His scalp has then been enlarged/expanded to show what seems to be like new follicle growth.
One of this blog’s readers e-mailed the company last week and got a response suggesting that they would be developing a hair loss related product. However, due to the anonymous nature of the comments on this blog, I remain cautious. I have contacted PolarityTE to verify this potential development. I asked them this very question last year, but got no response and hope for better this time.

Another new Entrant in the Hairy Skin Sector?

As if one new entrant in the hair-bearing skin department was not enough, we start 2018 with even more good news. Earlier today, various newspapers announced that a US team of researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine had succeeded in growing both upper and lower layers of mice skin using stem cells. More importantly, the new skin also grew perfectly normal hair follicles.

— Actual study here.

— As always, the UK’s DailyMail knows what this blog’s readers are most interested in and cuts through the chase for us.

Kerastem, Wounding and Other Hair News