Baldness may soon become a thing of the past, Yale researchers hope.
Yale researchers have uncovered chemical triggers that could restore hair growth in bald men. Bald men have stem cells in their hair follicles, a known fact that the new Yale study, led by assistant biology professor Valerie Horsley, used to discover a way to reactivate these cells. After the team identified that a precursor to hair growth is the growth of a layer of fat in the scalp, they then identified the stem cell responsible for that fat growth.
The researchers found that when the hairs die, a layer of fat in the scalp shrinks. But when a new hair begins to grow, that same layer of fat expands in a process called adipogenesis. The stem cells that control that process are called precursor cells, the study explains.
“We are hopeful that in humans, adipocyte precursor cells will be a viable therapy to induce hair growth in these individuals,” Horsley said in an e-mail.
