A counter-intuitive new treatment treats male pattern baldness by plucking out hairs.
Scientists demonstrated that plucking out 200 hairs in a specific pattern and density could cause 1,200 to grow back in their place, the University of Southern California, Health Sciences reported.
"It is a good example of how basic research can lead to a work with potential translational value," said Cheng-Ming Chuong, who is a professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "The work leads to potential new targets for treating alopecia, a form of hair loss."
The researchers plucked out 200 hair follicles from the back of a mouse in a low-density pattern and found no hairs grew back to replace them. When they increased the density from over six millimeters in diameter to between three and five, it triggered the regeneration of between 450 and 1,300 hairs.
The method is based on the principle of "quorum sensing," which defines how a system will respond to stimuli. In this case, the method describes how a hair follicle system will respond to plucking patterns. A molecular analysis showed plucked follicles release inflammatory proteins to signal distress. The response causes immune cells to rush to the site of injury and secrete signaling molecules such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). At a certain concentration, TNF-α can communicate with both plucked and unplucked follicles.
"The implication of the work is that parallel processes may also exist in the physiological or pathogenic processes of other organs, although they are not as easily observed as hair regeneration," Chuong concluded.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Cell.
