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|  File Name      : HAIR3.ASC        |  Online Date     :  10/06/94          |
|  Contributed by : Jerry Decker     |  Dir Category    :  BIOLOGY           |
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The following is another item which has decided comsumer applications that I
don't see on today's market.
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From Science Digest - March 1985

Restoring Hair at the Follicle

Life, as John F. Kennedy once said isn't fair.  Consider baldness.  Not the
most terrible thing that can happen to a man, but, still, a blow to the self-
image.

Despite lotions, rugs of various weaves and hair transplants, medical science
hasn't come up with a cure - yet.  But researchers at the University of
Dundee, Scotland, have taken a major step in a promising direction.

The background.  Certain skin cells called DERMAL PAPILLAE, which sit at the
base of hair follicles, control hair growth.  If the papillae are removed,
growth stops.  If they are put back, it RESUMES.  Papillae can even induce the
formation of brand-new, healthy hair follicles.

Colin Jahoda, Kenneth Home and Roy Oliver report in NATURE that they cultured
rat papillae in test tubes, getting them to reproduce IN QUANTITY.  The new
cells were as good at recharging barren follicles in rat skin as the originals
were.

Human papillae can also be cultured, and if they do as well as hair
regeneration as those of the rats do, it will be possible to study why human
follicles lose their potency.  More to the point, papillae transplants may
turn out to be the key to that long-sought baldness cure.
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