Hair loss treatment

Indian J Plast Surg.2009;42:63.
Surgical treatment of secondary cicatricial alopecia of scalp and eyebrow
Ahmed Sabry Hassan

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Introduction: The scalp is probably the second most visible part of the human anatomy second only to the face. Aesthetic considerations are extremely important in devising any plan for the restitution of the scalp. The eyebrows are a very noticeable structure and make an essential contribution to facial beauty. Areas of hair loss may result from traumatic, thermal, radiation, neoplastic or infective process. The surgical replacement of hair has progressively become an important part of the practice of plastic surgery. Hair loss following extensive scarring of the scalp can be treated by transferring hair bearing parieto-occipital flaps if convenient or adjacent hair-bearing scalp after tissue expansion. Awaiting stem cell research in this vital field of aesthetic surgery there is no known method to create new hair, and all current techniques for hair restoration involve redistributing the patient's existing hair. Many techniques were used for treating hair loss surgically such as scalp reduction, hair grafting, the use of local flaps and the use of tissue expanders.

Vet Dermatol. 2006 Feb;17:45.

....melatonin and brushing on hair regrowth after clipping normal Siberian Husky dogs.
Diaz SF, et al

The aims of this study were to determine the impact of body site, vigorous brushing and topical melatonin treatment on hair regrowth after clipping normal dogs. Siberian Husky dogs were randomly assigned to three groups of eight dogs each. All dogs had the lumbosacral region and both lateral thighs clipped. The left thigh and lumbosacral area received no treatment and were compared in all 24 dogs. Eight dogs had the right thigh treated with 0.1% melatonin twice daily for 2 months, and hair regrowth was compared with the left thigh. Eight dogs had the right thigh brushed twice daily for 2 months, and hair regrowth was compared with the left thigh. Eight dogs had neither thigh treated. Hairs were plucked before and 2 months postclipping, and the proportion of hair growth from the original length was calculated and compared as described above. Biopsy samples were collected before and after treatment to determine if brushing induced dermal inflammation and melatonin increased the proportion of anagen follicles. Proportionally, left thigh hairs were significantly longer compared to lumbosacral hairs 2 months postclipping. No significant differences in hair regrowth were noted between the nontreated thigh and the thigh treated with melatonin or brushed. No significant difference in dermal inflammation was noted before and after brushing. No significant differences were observed in the proportion of anagen follicles before and after topical melatonin treatment. Our results showed that the hairs in the lumbosacral region were proportionally shorter than lateral thigh hairs 2 months postclipping. Moreover, topical melatonin and brushing had no impact on hair regrowth after clipping normal dogs.

FASEB J. 1992;6:911

Interleukin 1 protects hair follicles from ARA-C-induced hair loss in vivo and in vitro.
Jimenez JJ,

ImuVert, a biologic response modifier, and interleukin 1 (IL 1) have been shown to protect the young rat from hair loss induced by ARA-C. In the present study the inhibition by ARA-C of DNA synthesis in hair follicles and the protective effect of ImuVert and IL 1 were investigated in vivo and in vitro. Both ImuVert and IL 1 were equally effective in protecting rats from ARA-C-induced hair loss. DNA synthesis in HFs isolated from ARA-C-treated animals was 10-20% of untreated controls. Follicles isolated from animals given either ImuVert or IL 1 before ARA-C exhibited normal DNA synthesis. In vitro, the incubation of normal rat HF with ARA-C resulted in 80% inhibition of thymidine uptake. .....

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Calif Med. 1958;89(5):322-30.

Noncicatrizing alopecias; with special reference to alopecia areata.
NEW WN, NICKEL WR.

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....there has been general acceptance of the causal relationship of the male sex hormone testosterone, age and inheritance in development of male pattern baldness. snip... Hair loss that accompanies disease states is probably due to generalized toxemia and disturbances in metabolism. Sometimes male pattern baldness occurs in physiologic states, as exemplified by diffuse hair loss occasionally in the postpartum period. snip... The development of alopecia totalis or universalis in 50 per cent of the prepuberal cases of alopecia areata is of real significance, especially since so very few patients regrow normal scalp hair....snip... A few conditions simulate alopecia areata. Probably the ones which are seen most often are trichotillomania and patchy baldness caused by agents used in hair waving and straightening. In 22 cases we found an inflammatory perivascular and perifollicular infiltrate, massive plugging of the ostia, disappearance of robust hair follicles and diminution in total number of hair follicles and sometimes fibrosis are not necessarily diagnostic of alopecia areata but seem to be very definitely characteristic.Treatment for hair regrowth in alopecia areata is of little avail. snip....

Cell Stress Chaperones. 2008;13:8

Chemotherapy-induced hair loss.
Jimenez JJ,.et al

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Hair loss is experienced by thousands of cancer patients every year. Substantial-to-severe hairloss is induced by anthracyclines, taxanes, alkylating compounds (e.g., cyclophosphamide), and the topisomerase inhibitor etoposide, agents that are widely used in the treatment of leukemias and breast, lung, ovarian, and bladder cancers. Currently, no treatment appears to be generally effective in reliably preventing this secondary effect of chemotherapy. We observed in experiments using different rodent models that localized administration of heat or injection of geldanamycin or 17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin induced a stress protein response in hair follicles and effectively prevented hair loss from adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, taxol, and etoposide. Model tumor therapy experiments support the presumption that such localized hair-loss preventing treatment does not negatively affect chemotherapy efficacy.

Cell Stress Chaperones. 2008;13:8

Prevention of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in rodent models.
Jimenez JJ,.et al

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Alopecia (hair loss) is experienced by thousands of cancer patients every year. Substantial-to-severe hair loss is induced by anthracyclines (e.g., adriamycin), taxanes (e.g., taxol), alkylating compounds (e.g., cyclophosphamide), and the topisomerase inhibitor etoposide, agents that are widely used in the treatment of leukemias and breast, lung, ovarian, and bladder cancers. Currently, no treatment appears to be generally effective in reliably preventing this secondary effect of chemotherapy. We observed in experiments using different rodent models that localized administration of heat or subcutaneous/intradermal injection of geldanamycin or 17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin induced a stress protein response in hair follicles and effectively prevented alopecia from adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, taxol, and etoposide. Model tumor therapy experiments support the presumption that such localized hair-saving treatment does not negatively affect chemotherapy efficacy.

Hair regrowth at the Proctor Clinic

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Cancer Epidemiol. 2009;33:293.

The effect of active hexose correlated compound in modulating cytosine arabinoside-induced hair loss, and 6-mercaptopurine- and methotrexate-induced liver injury in rodents.
Sun B,et al
BACKGROUND: Active hexose correlated compound (AHCC)... was used to assess amelioration of alopecia (hair loss) caused by cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C).. Follicular integrity and hair growth was assessed in male and female SD neonatal rats (8 days old) treated with a single dose of Ara-C (30 mg/kg/day, i.p.) and AHCC (500 mg/kg/day, p.o.) for 7 consecutive days. The side effects of a single oral dose of 6-MP plus MTX and their amelioration by treatment with AHCC (1000 mg/kg body weight) for 28 days were assessed in male ddY mice. RESULTS: Of the Ara-C treated rats 71.4% showed severe alopecia and 28.6% showed moderate hair loss. However, the AHCC -treated Ara-C group was significantly protected from alopecia. Ara-treated rats had profound loss of hair follicles but the Ara-C plus AHCC-treated group had mild losses of follicles.snip..

Br J Dermatol. 2009;160:75
Frontal fibrosing alopecia (hairloss): clinical presentations and prognosis.

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Tan KT, Messenger AG.

BACKGROUND: Frontal fibrosing alopecia is an uncommon condition characterized by progressive frontotemporal recession due to inflammatory destruction of hair follicles. Little is known about the natural history of this disease. OBJECTIVES: To determine the clinical features and natural history of frontal fibrosing alopecia. METHODS: We studied the cases notes of patients diagnosed with frontal fibrosing alopecia from 1993 to 2008 at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield. RESULTS: There were 18 patients aged between 34 and 71 years. Three were premenopausal. All had frontotemporal recession with scarring. This was associated with partial or complete loss of eyebrows in 15 patients while four had hair loss at other sites...snip,,, Progression of frontotemporal recession was seen in some patients, but not all. In one patient the hair line receded by 30 mm over 72 months, whereas in another patient there was no positional change in the hair line after 15 years. CONCLUSIONS: Hairloss secondary to frontal fibrosing alopecia is more common in postmenopausal women, but it can occur in younger women. It may be associated with mucocutaneous lichen planus. Recession of the hair line may progress inexorably over many years but this is not inevitable. It is not clear whether or not treatment alters the natural history of the disease...

J Invest Dermatol. 1976;67:98

Hair and hairloss

Ebling FJ.

The psychologic importance of hair to man is in inverse ratio to its physical function. Except for scalp hair and desultory areas of sexual hair, most of man's hair follicles are vestigial. Three problems of hair regrowth remain to be solved: (1) how the intermittent activity of hair follicles in both animals and man is controlled; how the male hormone alters the hair cycle in human skin; and (3) why larger hairs are produced by testosterone in some areas of the body when in some individuals the hair follicles in the scalp regress. Studies in which skin grafts from rats of different ages were exchanged showed that hair follicles are innately programmed but can be slowly influenced by systemic factors. Steroid hormones, especially estrogens, slow down the moult cycle whereas thyroid hormones accelerate it. What establishes the innate rhythm remains problematical. The fact that plucking out the club hair initiates activity in resting follicles has been explained by the hypothesis that the mitotic inhibitor which accumulates during anagen is normally used up or dispersed during telogen or by wounding. However, contrary to this theory, follicular activity is not prolonged by epilation during anagen. Moreover, if rats are epilated within one or two days of eruption, only club hairs are removed since forceps cannot grasp the tips of the new hairs. Such epilation does not affect the anagen in progress, but remarkedly enough the subsequent resting phase is shortened. Both sexual hair and male-pattern baldness depend on androgenic hormones. snip... The major metabolite of testosterone incubated with hair roots in androstenedione, and hirsute women without other obvious endocrine abnormality sometimes excrete high levels of androstanediol. Both steroids stimulated the sebaceous glands of hypophysectomized-castrated rats, which, however, showed only a limited response to testosterone. The androgenic steroids, the enzymes that convert them to their active metabolites, and the proteins that bind them are undoubtedly very important to the problems of the growth of sexual hair and male-pattern baldness.