BRIEF: New UCI research could help treat baldness, excessive hair growth

Orange County Register

07-12-17

July 11--UC Irvine scientists published research Tuesday, July 11, showing how hair follicles communicate across different regions of the body, which could eventually lead to treatment for baldness and excessive hair growth.

Researchers, including Maksim Plikus, professor of developmental and cell biology, used a mouse model to replicate poor hair growth that leads to baldness.

The study, which was published in the journal eLife, found that all hairs can communicate with each other and coordinate growth in different parts of the body.

But in human baldness, messaging among scalp hairs appears to stop, with every hair follicle growing independently. Plikus said scalp hair potentially could be stimulated to grow again through medication to resume molecular signaling. Treatment, however, is likely years away.

"We can now use mouse ear skin as the model to speed up discovery of the baldness pathology," Plikus said via email.

On the other hand, unwanted hair growth, such as on the face, could be the result of excessive communication.

The study was funded by several groups, including the National Institutes of Health.

___

(c)2017 The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.)

Visit The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.) at www.ocregister.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.