Understanding Hair Transplants and Hair Loss - Pacific Hair
Understanding Hair Transplants and Hair Loss - Pacific Hair
Understanding Hair Transplants and Hair Loss - Pacific Hair
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Increasing the length of the telomere restores the cells to an earlier state of develop-<br />
ment, at least from the st<strong>and</strong>point of chromosome length, as young cells have longer<br />
chromosomes . This now permits us to exp<strong>and</strong> the number of different types of stem<br />
cells, since there appears to be a heterogeneous population (Ghazizadeh <strong>and</strong> Taichman,<br />
2001) . Furthermore, we can increase our underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the signaling factors which<br />
are required to grow cells for hair follicle replacement <strong>and</strong> possible also for replacing the<br />
heart, brain, liver, pancreas, <strong>and</strong> essentially all organs of the body .<br />
The New Revolution: Plastic Cells<br />
A major advance in biology has just occurred; dynamic Plastic Cells throughout the body<br />
have been discovered . And as we work on creating immortal stem cells, we must integrate<br />
the plastic cell concept into our research programs . Plastic cells can be anything<br />
that they want to be . The view of the adult stem cell is rapidly changing . Adult bone marrow<br />
cells are one form of plastic cells that can not only restore the immune cells of the<br />
blood but can also repopulate brain, blood vessels, heart, liver <strong>and</strong> muscle (Blau et al .,<br />
2001) . Muscle cells <strong>and</strong> brain cells may also be a source of blood cells .<br />
It appears that cells can move from one organ to another <strong>and</strong> differentiate in an environment-dependent<br />
manner . Therefore, a cell can change its morphology as required <strong>and</strong><br />
start performing the function as its neighbors dictate . Human hair follicle stem cells appear<br />
to move around to different parts of the follicle (Akiyama, et al ., 2000), although it is<br />
possible that these cells provide evidence for the properties of mobile Plastic Cells . The<br />
signal molecules which determine the fate of these hair follicle Plastic Cells appear to be<br />
beta-1 integrin <strong>and</strong> epidermal growth factor <strong>and</strong> the cells have keratin 19 markers . These<br />
findings are very unsettling because it can set the entire practice of medicine upside<br />
down . New therapeutic procedures which use a patient’s own stem cells have already<br />
been performed. In fact, Modex, a Swiss firm established in June 2000, has a produced<br />
called EpiDex, which is a skin product that the company makes from a patient’s own<br />
outer root sheath hair follicle cells . Repair of damaged heart muscles has been accomplished<br />
after intravascular injection of bone-marrow-derived stem cells (Jackson et al.,<br />
2001)<br />
Mineral Ascorbates <strong>and</strong> the Growth of Plastic Cells<br />
One view that has not been turned upside down is the fundamental need of all cell types<br />
to have the proper amount of mineral ascorbates within their cells . A plastic cell requires<br />
U n d e r s t a n d i n g H a i r T r a n s p l a n t s a n d H a i r L o s s<br />
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