RepliCel Life Sciences; a company out of Vancouver, Canada; is studying the use of hair cloning techniques to treat male pattern baldness and hair loss in women.
The study is in progress, but analysis of the 6-month interim results of the first phases has been published. The preliminary results at 6 months show that almost two-thirds of subjects (10 out of 16, or 63%) received a greater than 5% increase in hair density at the injection site. Of that group of 10 subjects, seven of them saw hair density improve by more than 10%. In one subject vellus hair density increased 24.9%, terminal hair density increased 14.5%, overall hair density increased by 19.2%, and cumulative thickness per area increased by 15.4%. There were no significant adverse safety events reported in the first 6 months of the trial.
Phase I/IIa of the RepliCel study involved injecting male and female subjects with their own (autologous) dermal sheath cup cells (DSCC), which were replicated or cloned using RepliCel’s laboratory technology. A preliminary analysis of the safety of the injections, as well as a preliminary analysis of the efficacy of the treatment in growing hair, was announced in May 2012 and presented to the European Hair Research Society in June 2012. Subjects in this part of the study will continue to be monitored for any adverse physical reactions and to assess hair growth at 12 months and 24 months after treatment.
Phase IIb of the study is designed to help the RepliCel researchers formulate the optimal treatment for hair growth. Some of the treatment regimens that will be tested include the use of different concentrations of cells and different treatment schedules, plus the effects of single injections versus repeat injections. The final protocols for Phase IIb are currently being worked out, with the clinical trial expected to begin in late 2012.
Reference:
Lortkipanidze, N. Safety and Efficacy Study of Human Autologous Hair Follicle Cells to Treat Androgenetic Alopecia. In Clinicaltrials.gov. Retrieved July 26, 2012, from http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01286649.
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