Hair Loss Cure 2020

I first covered UK-based HairClone in 2016. Later in the same year, HairClone’s very friendly CEO Dr. Paul Kemp kindly answered a number of reader questions.

Although Dr. Kemp has since been in touch with me, I am reluctant to write more frequent posts on HairClone. I do not want to repeat follicle banking related news unless there is a groundbreaking development in actual hair multiplication. Dr. Kemp was formerly the CEO of Intercytex. I hope that he uses his past experiences to prevent another disappointment for us hair loss sufferers.

Update: May 21, 2021

HairClone, Claire Higgins and Hair Research PhD

HairClone and Dr. Claire Higgins are partnering to sponsor one PhD student for a hair research related opportunity at Imperial College London. A stipend of 18,000 British Pounds will be provided and the program begins in the 2021/2022 year. Besides Dr. Higgins, the student will also be mentored by Dr. Sylvain Ladame.

According to the announcement, this “advanced therapeutics” related research will consist of two parts:

Develop a microneedle device for the delivery of reprogrammed dermal papilla cells to miniaturized alopecic hair follicles.
Use in-depth computational analysis and in vitro hair follicle modeling. The purpose of this will be to understand the mode of action by which papilla cells rejuvenate hair follicles. And in the process, reverse androgenetic alopecia (aka male pattern baldness).

While it is great to see this initiative, it also means that the actual hair multiplication (or cloning) is still a few years away. In any event, I am glad that HairClone is still focusing on an ultimate goal beyond hair follicle banking.

August 4, 2019

HairClone Begins Follicle Banking

It seems like HairClone has not disbanded or gone silent, but is moving forward full steam. The company is starting its follicle banking service after earlier this week getting UK government approval. In fact the company will be the world’s first ever hair follicle banking system. Press release: follicle banking.

Edit: In May 2021, a South Korean company named Han Bio also supposedly started hair follicle banking services.

HairClone Follicle Banking. — HairClone’s Hair Follicle Banking Process.

The logic behind banking your currently healthy hair follicles is similar to the logic behind banking young sperm, of your young eggs, or even newborn umbilical cord blood banking.

Banking at the earliest opportunity “stops the clock” on young hair follicles from ageing. The dermal papilla cells will then theoretically be more active and “youthful” when the hair multiplication technology is available in future.

Both males and females over age 18 will be able to have around 50 follicle units extracted, cryopreserved and stored for future use (when hair multiplication or cloning type treatments are available). Cryopreservation and storage of hair follicles at -150C essentially “stops the clock” when it comes to further hair loss, thinning or miniaturization.

Dr. Paul Kemp’s Recent E-mail

Dear HLC2020 Admin,

It has been some months since we last chatted, but I just wanted to let you know that we have been working hard. We have now been authorized by the UK’s Human Tissue Authority (HTA) to begin to bank cryopreserved follicles. In order to gain this approval, we had to carry out extensive validation studies to show that we could:

Reproducibly extract human follicles.
Cryopreserve them.
Ship, test and thaw the follicles.
Extract viable cells that could be culture expanded.

We first submitted the license application in January and then there were a series of questions. Some of these needed additional work, but the end result is an incredibly well understood robust process.

The HTA stress that this does not authorize or approve treatment and gaining that approval is the next stage in our strategy. We are all set to develop the GMP validation data for culture expanded follicle cells and just need to raise the funds to do so. As you know, we tried to do this through crowdfunding, but unfortunately weren’t successful. So we are looking at alternative funding sources. This has given a significant delay to our original timelines.

Banking will be available through our clinical partners and banking associates who will be licensed procurement centers and we plan to increase the number of these partners and associates over the coming months.

Cryopreservation

Cryopreservation and follicle banking is just the first step in the process. Important elements to note are:

It will be available to both men and women.
Banking will allow multiple treatments from one initial surgery.
Banking at the earliest possible stage “stops the clock” on further ageing of the cells.
Since patients with banked follicles have already undergone the surgery step, they will be first in line for cell expansion when treatments are authorized.
The follicles remain the property of the patient so could be used in other cell based treatments if the patient chooes so down the road.

The next stage is to work with our clinical partners to develop a system to rebuild miniaturizing follicles. Follicular neogenesis is also an interest of ours. We are carrying out some work on this, but our first goal will be to rescue a patient’s natural hairs. As all patients are unique, we envision that this could also be used in the future in combination with hair transplants.

I have attached a press release that provides more information and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

Paul Kemp PhD
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Director

www.HairClone.me
@HairClone
#HairClone

Chronic Stress and Hair Loss

On March 31, 2021, researchers from Harvard University released findings (in mice) that chronic stress causes permanent hair loss. These findings were published in numerous newspapers around the world. The lead researcher was the respected Dr. Ya-Chieh Hsu, and the paper was published in Nature on March 4, 2021.

It was titled: “Corticosterone inhibits Gas6 to govern hair follicle stem-cell quiescence.” Chronic stress seems to increase levels of the corticosterone stress hormone in mice. This in turn prolongs hair follicle stem cell (HFSC) quiescence, resulting in hair follicles remaining in an extended resting phase.

The scientists believe that restoring Gas6 gene expression overcomes the stress-induced inhibition of HFSC activation and hair growth. Another summary from Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI).

“Stress essentially just elevates this preexisting ‘adrenal gland–hair follicle axis,’ making it even more difficult for hair follicle stem cells to enter the growth phase to regenerate new hair follicles.” — Dr. Hsu.

Ronald Reagan never had any hair loss despite insane levels of stress. But he was not a mouse of course.

Since that day, readers have regularly posted or e-mailed me links to newly published versions of the story. This has annoyed me, since I do not believe these findings hold much merit in humans. However, to avoid further e-mails, I am now writing my counterarguments.

Besides the fact that the research was done in mice, there are some obvious issues that the researchers have surprisingly failed to address.

Mice are not Humans

Why do young people almost never go bald? In my whole life, I have seen just a handful of people younger than 14 being bald. And all of them seemed to have the rare condition of alopecia areata (or alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis). A few dozen people around the world also go prematurely bald due to progeria (Hutchinson-Gilford). I am of course not counting the few pre-teens who shave their head as a fashion statement.

Major baldness is rare even in those who are younger than 20 years in age. And also not too common in those who are below 25. It is surely not believable that young people do not suffer from major stressful events!? If anything, stress is perhaps worst in those who are in high school and college. Permanent hair loss is almost always caused by male hormones (hence the term androgenetic alopecia) and NOT stress. More specifically, male pattern hair loss is usually due to a person’s genetic sensitivity to the effects of dihydrotestosterone (DHT). The latter in turn is converted from testosterone via the 5-alpha-reductase enzyme. Make sure to read my post on destroying the androgen receptor.

Why do “pure” Native Americans never go bald? Are the Harvard Researchers implying that Native Americans never have chronic stress? If not, they should have at least posted a caveat that certain groups are genetically protected from stress induced permanent hair loss.

The findings do not address why women are less likely to have significant hair loss in comparison to men. Especially in their younger years. Most news sources seem to suggest than women in fact have more stress than men. So if anything, they should have higher rates of baldness than men.

Why does stress not seem to impact body hair growth? Or even nail growth. Most men get an increasing amount of body hair as they get older. I have never heard someone say that they permanently lost their body hair after prolonged stress. Nails are made from keratin, just like scalp hair. Yet stress does not seem to cause nail stem cells to go into a permanent “resting phase”. Even people over the age of 100 have to keep cutting their fingernails and toenails unfortunately.

Mahathir Mohamad Hair — 95-year old Mahathir Mohamad has not lost any hair even with a lifetime of stress.

Why do many people who go through tremendous stress in their lives still never go bald? Among the most famous examples of this are: 93-year old now deceased ex-US president Ronald Reagan. And 95-year old still living ex-Malaysian prime minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. These two men went through numerous periods of chronic stress during their long lives.

Stress and Hair Greying

The funny thing is that the same Harvard researcher (Dr. Ya-Chieh Hsu) and her team published a paper in January 2020 titled: “How stress causes gray hair.” At the time, I also ignored the work due to skepticism. Especially in regards to how findings in mice do not necessarily translate to humans. I did not even expand much on the findings in my regularly updated grey hair cure post.

Some of the same arguments I made earlier apply to these conclusions. Why do you almost never see children with grey hair? Young people often suffer from chronic stress. Yet I would guess that less than one percent of those below age 15 have prematurely graying hair.

I do think that the chances of getting more rapid development of grey hair after prolonged stress is at least somewhat possible in many humans. However, I do not believe that stress can cause permanent hair loss in almost any humans.

HairClone Follicle Banking and Hair Regrowth