Breakthrough hair loss treatment: This sugar gel triggers surprising regrowth
Some of the greatest inventions in the world have been discovered by accident.
A breakthrough treatment for hair loss was found by researchers accidentally while they were studying the effects of naturally occurring deoxyribose sugar in healing wounds of lab mice. Much to their glee, they found out that the mice grew fur around their lesions rapidly on application of the sugars which encouraged the scientists to investigate it further. This led them to a cure for hereditary-patterned baldness which impacts men and women across the globe.
It so happened that researchers were applying the sugar to the wounds of lab mice when they noticed that the fur around the lesions regrew quickly. This study was published in Frontiers in Pharmacology in July this year.
Scientists at the University of Sheffield and COMSATS University in Pakistan were researching on a sugar that naturally occurs in the body and helps form DNA, the ‘deoxyribose’ part of deoxyribonucleic acid.
They were studying how these sugars heal the wounds of mice when applied topically when they made this startling observation and found that fur around lesions of the mice was growing back faster than in untreated mice.
To study this further, they took male mice with testosterone-driven hair loss and removed the fur from their backs. Every day, they applied a little bit of deoxyribose sugar gel on the exposed skin. In a matter of weeks, the fur in the region where gel was applied showed a ‘robust’ regrowth, sprouting long, thick individual hairs.
In fact, the deoxyribose gel was found to be so effective, that the researchers concluded that it worked just as well as minoxidil, a topical treatment for hair loss which is commonly known by the brand name Rogaine.
“Our research suggests that the answer to treating hair loss might be as simple as using a naturally occurring deoxyribose sugar to boost the blood supply to the hair follicles to encourage hair growth,” said tissue engineer Sheila MacNeil from the University of Sheffield.
Hereditary-pattern baldness, also known as androgenetic alopecia, is a common cause of hair loss that’s caused by a combination of genetics, hormones, and aging. The disorder impacts up to 40 percent of the population. Twi drugs have been approved for treating hair loss.
Minoxidil, an over-the-counter treatment, can slow hair loss and promote regrowth but doesn’t work for everyone. Male patients can consider finasteride (Propecia), a prescription drug that slows hair loss in 80-90% of cases.
However, it must be taken continuously and may cause side effects like erectile dysfunction, reduced libido, depression, and testicular or breast pain. Finasteride is not approved for women.
“The treatment of androgenetic alopecia remains challenging,” MacNeil and her colleagues, led by biomaterial researcher Muhammad Anjum from COMSATS, write in their published paper.
Sugar gel as effective as Minoxidil
The researchers developed a biodegradable, non-toxic gel made from deoxyribose and tested it on mouse models of male-pattern baldness. Minoxidil was also tested separately, with some mice receiving a combination of the sugar gel and minoxidil. Mice treated with the deoxyribose gel showed the growth of new hair follicles compared to those given a gel without active ingredients.
It was found that both minoxidil and the sugar gel promoted 80 to 90 percent hair regrowth in mice with male pattern baldness, however, combining the treatments, didn’t make much difference.
How it could help treating human hair loss
Researchers weren’t exactly sure how deoxyribose gel works for hair regrowth but they noticed that it leads to longer and thicker hair growth in mice and around the treated site, there was an increase in blood vessels and skin cells.
“The better the blood supply to the hair bulb, the larger its diameter and the more hair growth,” the researchers write.
This raises hope for treatment of alopecia in humans and in the area of stimulating hair, lash, and eyebrow regrowth following chemotherapy.
“This is a badly under-researched area, and hence new approaches are needed,” write the authors.
The research could be carried forward by experimenting on female mice experiencing alopecia as in males it has shown a promising result.
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