Do moles on our body hold the key to curing baldness? They contain proteins that cause “vigorous hair growth,” according to research
Hairy moles on our bodies may hold the key to curing baldness, a study suggests.
They contain a protein that acts as a “potent hair growth activator,” researchers said.
Scientists at the University of California, Irvine, used the protein to stimulate “robust growth of long and thick hair” in mice and human skin grafts.
They say the molecule – known as osteopontin – could be used in the future to reverse hair loss on the scalp.
A new study from the University of California, Irvine found that the protein osteopontin, found in hairy moles, stimulated hair growth. This could be a possible treatment for hair loss
Osteopontin has several functions, including wound healing and tissue repair, but it is not well recognized for its role in hair growth.
If successful, the treatment could fill a gap in hair loss medications. Only a handful are approved for androgenetic alopecia, which affects up to half of American adults, according to the National Health Institutes (NIH).
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only approved two medications for the condition: Rogaine (minoxidil) and Propecia (finasteride).
The team is preparing for human clinical trials this summer. These treatments likely involve injecting osteopontin and other hair growth proteins into the scalp with microneedles, similar to those used in Botox.
Their latest research, published in the journal Naturetested whether osteopontin caused hair growth in mice and human skin samples.
The team, based at the University of California, Irvine, used a mouse model with the same genetic factors that cause moles in human skin.
They then tracked hair growth in moles versus skin without moles.
The researchers found excessive hair growth in the moles with shorter pauses in growth cycles.
“We found that senescent pigment cells produce large amounts of a specific signaling molecule called osteopontin, which causes normally dormant and small hair follicles to activate their stem cells for vigorous growth of long and thick hair,” said lead author Dr. Maksim Plikus in a paper. press release.
The human body is covered with more than five million hair follicles, but only 10 percent are on the scalp.
Most are so short that they are practically invisible. Some of them are easier to see when a mole appears on the skin, and in many cases those moles sprout long, thick hair.
“Our interpretation was that the molecules contained within that mole must be very potent activators of hair growth,” said Dr Plikus. “Our goal became to find the biology behind the difference between normal skin and mole.”
The San Diego startup Amplifica, co-founded by Dr. Plikus, is now turning osteopontin into a treatment for androgenetic alopecia, a hereditary form of hair loss in men and women.
“In fact, nature has already performed the most important experiment for us: in millions of people, there are hairy moles that have elevated osteopontin,” Dr. Plikus to Fierce Biotech.
“I see what we did as nature’s experiment with reverse engineering, and for this reason I’m pretty excited that osteopontin could really be relevant to hair loss therapy.”