ARTICLE: Healthcast: Researchers Perform Hair 'Cloning'

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Healthcast: Researchers Perform Hair 'Cloning'

POSTED: 4:46 p.m. EST March 27, 2003
The following Healthcast report by WTAE medical editor Marilyn Brooks
first aired March 27, 2003, on Action News at 5 p.m.



Dr. Ken Washenik, Bosley Medical: "It's one of those things that we
don't have much choice in. If you're born with those genes that make
you susceptible to hair loss, you'll lose hair."

Scientists are working on a way to replenish your own natural hair by
cloning, or multiplying, hair cells. They take samples the size of a
pencil eraser from the back of the scalp and grow more in their labs.
The seeds are then replanted in the scalp. Washenik: "At the end of
three or four weeks you can have arguably 10,000 hair seeds --
whereas now, when we do hair transplants, you are limited to how much
hair there is to move." In the future, doctors say hair
multiplication will help enhance the appearance of hair-transplant
patients. It's being done now in research labs in Atlanta and
Philadelphia. Researchers expect it to be available to the general
public within five years.

SOURCE: The Pittsburgh Channel / WTAE-TV, PA


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