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Scientists Successfully Grow Full Head of Hair On Bald Man

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-for-patrick-stewart dept.

realized writes: "A man with almost no hair on his body has grown a full head of it after a novel treatment by doctors at Yale University. The patient had previously been diagnosed with both alopecia universalis, a disease that results in loss of all body hair, and plaque psoriasis, a condition characterized by scaly red areas of skin. The only hair on his body was within the psoriasis plaques on his head. He was referred to Yale Dermatology for treatment of the psoriasis. The alopecia universalis had never been treated.

After two months on tofacitinib [an FDA-approved arthritis drug] at 10 mg daily, the patient's psoriasis showed some improvement, and the man had grown scalp and facial hair — the first hair he'd grown there in seven years. After three more months of therapy at 15 mg daily, the patient had completely regrown scalp hair and also had clearly visible eyebrows, eyelashes, and facial hair, as well as armpit and other hair, the doctors said."

17 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. title should be... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Scientists Accidentally Grow Full Head of Hair On Bald Man"

    The result was unintended, though interesting.

    1. Re:title should be... by kruach+aum · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think in medicine the "accidental" part is assumed.

    2. Re:title should be... by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Informative

      Or "Yet again scientist stare another bucket of evidence that inflammation underlays many human ailments from cancer to heart disease to hair loss and treating the underlying inflammation for one thing is effective in more ways than they expected"

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    3. Re:title should be... by PsychoSlashDot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Scientists Accidentally Grow Full Head of Hair On Bald Man"

      To be fair, the real article title was too long...

      Scientists Accidentally Grow Full Head of Hair On Man Who Was Bald For None of The Reasons That Would Make This Discovery Interesting To A Reasonable Number of People

      --
      "Oh no... he found the .sig setting."
    4. Re:title should be... by niado · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or "Yet again scientist stare another bucket of evidence that inflammation underlays many human ailments from cancer to heart disease to hair loss and treating the underlying inflammation for one thing is effective in more ways than they expected"

      Interesting observation. JAK inhibitors and TNF inhibitors (including monoclonal antibodies), are commonly used to treat various forms of autoimmune diseases such as arthritis (in it's varying manifestations), psoriasis, IBS, ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's. These autoimmune diseases have a high rate of comorbidity and often respond to the same or similar treatments.

      Alopecia was already thought to be an autoimmune disorder, so the observed results should not be very surprising. It seems to be only newsworthy since the treatment happened to be a total cure for a very rare disease.

    5. Re:title should be... by David_Hart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Scientists Accidentally Grow Full Head of Hair On Bald Man"

      The result was unintended, though interesting.

      Better title:

      Scientists treat autoimmune disease with arthritis drug, hair loss reversed

    6. Re:title should be... by MozeeToby · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do you have any idea how much a pill that cures baldness would be worth? After erectile dysfunction that's like the holy grail of the pharmaceutical industry, a drug to treat something that's incredibly common especially in middle aged men (in theory when disposable income skyrockets) that's also very embarrassing for a smaller but still large large number of younger people.

      That's why it's news. Unfortunately for Pfizer (and the many men, including myself, who are balding) his particular baldness was almost certainly caused by a rare autoimmune disorder (and treated by a drug designed to treat similar disorder) and is therefore unlikely to produce a generalized treatment

    7. Re:title should be... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      Apparently, this was one of those famous "that's funny..."-moments. ;-)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    8. Re:title should be... by cfalcon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Mod this up. While this is a great discovery, the autoimmune form of this is super rare compared to any of the male pattern baldness things.

      It won't help most men at all. But, still, good news.

  2. Not the same as male pattern baldness by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Informative

    I mean, that's obvious, but just in case anyone is too hopeful.

    1. Re:Not the same as male pattern baldness by Second_Derivative · · Score: 2

      Yup. This guy has an auto-immune disorder. Pattern baldness is caused by premature death of hair follicles. Treating that would require a way to bring those cells back from the dead or some really nifty tricks with stem cells to replace them.

      Not that that's going to stop a deluge of clickbait crap about this over the next few weeks, I'm sure.

  3. Actual article link (with more photos) by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here.

    (What the article doesn't explain is why a science article needs a title involving an unnecessary metaphor and a colon: "Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Oral Tofacitinib Reverses Alopecia Universalis in a Patient with Plaque Psoriasis.")

  4. AIDS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    The drug costs $2055 a month for a 10 mg per day dose. It's a universal anti-lymphocite agent which basically induces a state similar to AIDS, by killing off lymphocytes and leaving the door open for serious infections or diseases, so not exactly safe either.

    1. Re:AIDS by niado · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's a universal anti-lymphocite agent which basically induces a state similar to AIDS, by killing off lymphocytes and leaving the door open for serious infections or diseases, so not exactly safe either.

      Tofacitinib is a JAK inhibitor, which is not exactly an anti-lymphocite agent. These drugs function by interfering with the JAK-STAT_signaling_pathway, not by killing off lymphocytes.

      These drugs definitely are are immunosuppressive. They are generally considered safe for most patients, though they certainly increase the risk of opportunistic infections (example: tuberculosis).

  5. Let me be the first to say by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ch' Ch' Ch' Chia

    http://info.autoworksmn.com/Po...

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  6. Alopecia universalis is not the same as MPB by fozzy1015 · · Score: 2

    Alopecia universalis is a rare autoimmune disorder, and it's understandable that a drug that works on a pathway to alleviate arthritis could also work for it. The more common male pattern baldness is caused by the sensitivity of certain hair follicles to androgens, specifically testosterone and its more active form dihydrotestosterone. It's unknown why some hair follicles respond to it by growing hair(think chest hair) and others miniaturize until the hair is nearly invisible(think hairline and top of the head).

  7. No News Here (of the day) by Crypto+Gnome · · Score: 2

    Surprisingly enough they found that a patient suffering from a side-effect of an autoimmune disorder treated with a drug for treating an (other) autoimmune disorder was successful in reducing-aka-curing the side-effect.

    PLUS ONE for "the scientific method", MINUS ONE THOUSAND for thinking this is in ANY way "totally amazing duude!".

    BTW: you CANNOT "cure" baldness, baldness is not a disease, it's a description of a symptom.

    --
    Visit CryptoGnome in his home.