Over the years, there’s been a lot of potential cures for baldness that have popped up: wasabi, pee, pubes, and even Maccas fries have all had their moment as beacons of hope for some luscious locks.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have discovered another potential fix for a shiny head, and it is much more scientific than the other ones, which has got to be good right?
The team that completed the study decided to look at hair follicles as they’re the only organ we have that regrows by themselves, even if they haven’t been damaged.
In the follicles, they found a little type of protein called ‘TGF-beta’ which pretty much tells stem cells in the hair how to divide and form new stem cells or die off.
Qixuan Wang, the study’s co-author, said that stem cells, just like in the movies, could actually help people heal quickly from injuries.
“In science fiction when characters heal quickly from injuries, the idea is that stem cells allowed it,” she told Ladbible.
“In real life, our new research gets us closer to understanding stem cell behaviour, so that we can control it and promote wound healing.”
“TGF-beta has two opposite roles. It helps activate some hair follicle cells to produce new life, and later, it helps orchestrate apoptosis, the process of cell death.”
So, the TGF-beta is the be-all and end-all of baldness, deciding when and where hair should live and die.
When these hair follicles die, they leave behind a pool of stem cells. This pool could be the cure for baldness.
If scientists can do a bit more research on TGF-beta and discover how it ‘talks’ to the hair follicles when it decides to revive them, that could be the golden ticket to no more baldness.
Unfortunately, that’s still a little while away, in the meantime, either get a hat or just own the baldness… it might work out for you.
