Hair Loss Effects

Hair Loss Research

Hair Loss Research
Hair loss is a problem that affects millions of people around the world.  It is a common misconception that hair loss only targets older people.  In fact hair loss targets men and women of all ages.
One of the major causes of hair loss is the result of an abundance of the hormone DHT in the system.  When hair goes through its usual cycle of growing, resting, and shedding, the hair follicles begin to develop DHT receptor sites.   The extra DHT attaches to the receptor sites and attacks the follicle as if it were a foreign agent.  As the hair continues its cycle, the follicles begin to shrink until they are too small to let hair through.  The result is thinning hair and eventually hair loss.  This condition is usually an inherited condition, passed down from parent to child.
Fortunately there have been many breakthroughs in the field of hair loss research.  Gene therapy is one of the fields showing promising advances. Gene therapy is the process of altering the functions of cells by changing the genes of cells that are already in the body.
Gene therapy is still a relatively young project, but is showing promise.  The idea behind gene therapy is to change the function of the cells in the body.  As it relates to hair loss, follicles with DHT-sensitive cells can be altered to become DHT-resistant.  In such cases, the excess DHT would no longer have adverse effects on the hair follicles and hair could grow normally.
There are several issues that must be addressed before gene therapy can become a reality.
First, the body has millions of different cells, and there are tens of thousands of genes on DNA strands that would need to be altered.
The second complication involves targeting the genes that need to be changed and then giving them the instruction to change their behavior.  This would happen by making the genes produce different proteins to make the body do what we want.  
The third complication with gene therapy is actually getting the cells in the body to replace the old genes with the altered ones.
This process is perhaps several years from being reality, but progress is being made.  In 1998, a group of researchers were able to identify a single gene that was responsible for a specific type of inherited hair loss disorder.  It was the first time that a single gene was identified to cause hair loss.  The gene was dubbed “hairless” and provided the first step toward discovering genes that affect hair loss.