Scientists Stumble Upon Possible Breakthrough in Treating Baldness

Researchers in California may have made a breakthrough in the treatment of baldness – completely by accident.

The researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles and the Veterans Administration were studying the gut functions of mice with alopecia, an affliction where all of an animal's hair falls out, The New York Times reported.

They treated the animals with a chemical and returned them to cages with normal, furry mice. When they returned to look at the animals a few months later, they saw something very strange: None of the mice in the cage were bald -- all had a full head of fur. The scientists had to resort to looking at the mice ear tags to identify the mice that had been treated.

"This was totally unexpected," said Million Mulugeta, a veterinarian and co-director of the UCLA/CURE Digestive Diseases Research Center, according to ABC News. "We do not work on hair; we did not set out to study hair growth."

The discovery could prove "a breakthrough therapy for alopecia," the researchers wrote in a paper in the journal PLoS One. It could also help the treatment of stress-related baldness and hair loss due to chemotherapy treatment.

The scientists were studying elevated levels of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), which is closely associated with stress, and its impact. They injected the mice with a compound known as an antagonist, which temporarily blocks the action of CRF.

The treatment not only returned hair to the mice that had already suffered from hair loss; it also seemed to prevent the loss of hair in mice. It even appeared to prevent hair from going gray.

"The antagonist really triggers a mechanism that covers a lot of biological phenomena, including hair growth and hair color," Mulugeta said, according to The New York Times.

To be sure, not everyone is convinced that these results will have a major impact on the treatment of baldness in humans. While stress can be a major factor in hair loss, most baldness is simply genetic. As a result, it may be difficult to apply this research to the average man with a receding hairline.

Sponsored Links

"It's difficult to say that it's going to lead to a new treatment,'' said George Cotsarelis, chairman of the dermatology department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Still, there's little doubt that Mulugeta and his researchers may have stumbled upon something major in the age-old battle between men and hair loss.

"We're at the early stage, and obviously we need to do more work to understand how this works, where it acts and, of course, if it has side effects," Mulugeta said, according to the Times. "But we're excited because the effects are very dramatic, very quick and last for so long."