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Hair Transplant Culturing / Cloning
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Regrowth will be adding more
information about Hair Culturing as it becomes available.
Hair Culturing
(also known as Cloning) |
| What
Is It? |
Hair culturing
involves removing donor hairs from the back of the scalp, isolating the stem cells from
which the follicle grows, and culturing (growing) them in a lab, and reimplanting the new
stem cells into the balding area of scalp. Because
many stem cells are being grown in the lab from a few hairs, you will be able to grow many
times the number of hairs removed. This will end the limits of how much hair can be
transplanted due to the limited amount of hair that can be extracted from the back of the
scalp during normal hair transplants. |
| Status |
Several doctors
are developing this technique:
- A study is underway in Canada at the University of Toronto to
develop hair culturing.
- A Dr. Gho in the Netherlands has been granted a European
Patent as of 9/14/98 and is conducting a study on actual patients. They expect their
study to be done in 8 months (early 2000), after which time they plan to license the
technology if it proves successful.
- Dr. Colin Jahoda of the UK is researching the process.
- At least one doctor in the US is seeking to develop the
technique privately as well.
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| Time
to Availability |
As soon as 2
years but could take 5-20 more depending on how far along the people working on it really
are. At least 5 years is more likely. |
| Advantages |
- Unlimited or nearly unlimited hairs to implant/transplant.
- Less scarring where hair is removed since less needs to be
taken.
- Stem cells may be implanted by syringe which may mean less
trauma to the implant area than traditional transplants.
- Less invasive procedure may require less anesthetic and
involve less pain to the patient.
- Recent research indicates it may be possible to take donor
cells from other individuals.
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| Drawbacks |
- Costs may be dramatically higher than traditional transplants,
especially when the technique first becomes available.
- Cultured cells often have shorter lifespans than normal cells
and it is possible that the hairs will not last a lifetime (and since the procedure is so
new there will be no way to tell until it has been available a while).
- Implanting stem cells in this fashion can carry a risk of
tumor or cyst formation - it is unclear at this point whether this may be a stumbling
block to development.
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Articles:
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