Finally, Male Pattern Baldness has a Cure!

By Brandie Umar - Executive Director of Content | June 22nd, 2012

Very often in the world of health, discovering the problem can help uncover the solution.

Such is the hope for Male Pattern Baldness. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently published a study wherein they describe what they believe to be the cause of hair loss for men.

The scientists discovered an unusually large number of a certain protein known as Prostaglandin D2 in the scalps of bald men.

Prostaglandin D2 is known to prevent the growth of new hair in both humans as well as mice.

Senior author on the study and MD George Cotsarelis explains the importance of the findings saying, "Although a different prostaglandin was known to increase hair growth, our findings were unexpected, as prostaglandins haven't been thought about in relation to hair loss, yet it made sense that there was an inhibitor of hair growth, based on our earlier work looking at hair follicle stem cells."

Male pattern baldness is a common disease affecting eight out of ten men under the age of seventy. Men who have male pattern baldness experience a shrinking of their hair follicles which in turn causes those follicles to produce finer hair that grows for shorter periods of time.

Basically, male pattern baldness prevents the scalp from replacing hair at the same rate it is losing it.

But knowing the cause of male pattern baldness could lead to exciting new treatments that are better able to target the problem directly.

Prior to these findings, experts assumed the follicles had permanently died. This belief led to hair transplant surgery such as FUT and FUE where entire follicles are transplanted on to the scalp.

However the latest research shows that the follicles are not actually dead, but rather are more likely simply inhibited from creating new growth or possibly missing a necessary activating compound.

And men aren’t the only ones to benefit from this new study.

Since prostaglandins may indicate a commonality between men and women with androgenetic alopecia, there may even be hope for new treatments for hair loss for women as well.

Find a hair transplant doctor to discuss this issue in more detail.