Webman's Blog: 培植毛囊細胞治禿頭有髮度

【聯合報／編譯陳世欽／報導】

2006.10.08 02:29 am

英國廣播公司（BBC）七日報導，英國生物科技公司Intercytex正在研發一種可以培植毛囊細胞的自動控制裝置，以解決男女禿頭的問題。

報導指出，Intercytex已經找到方法，可取下頸後毛囊細胞，增生後植回，目前正計畫以英國政府提供的三百五十萬美元補助款使培植毛囊細胞的過程自動化，使更多人受益。

Intercytex與研發貯存並培植毛囊細胞自動化系統的「自動化夥伴計畫」合作，期望能夠早日量產毛囊。

該公司最初以七名禿頭的男性實驗，其中五人隨後長出毛髮，目前正在對另外廿人實驗。在卅分鐘的過程中，研究人員取下志願者頸後毛囊，在培養皿中增殖至數千個之後，再注射到想再度長出毛髮處的皮下部位。

最常見的一種禿頭是男性荷爾蒙二氫睪固酮引起。它會使毛囊萎縮，毛髮變薄，最後毛髮完全消失。

Intercytex執行長希金斯表示，以男性禿頭而言，頸後部位不會受到這種荷爾蒙影響。他說：「細胞培養成長階段大約三星期，而且涉及很多步驟，用自動控制裝置可以執行全部的步驟，且一次可以取下二百個樣本。」

由於遺傳了英國王室家族男性的禿頭基因，剛滿廿四歲的威廉王子已開始大量掉髮，隱約露出禿頂的跡象。他擔心額頭像叔叔愛德華王子一樣光禿，已接受專家建議，準備前往美國紐約道爾醫院治療。

希金斯又說，Intercytex也會對脫毛症進行實驗，估計三年後才能推廣這種療法。

諾丁罕大學心理學家韓特表示，掉髮會造成心理創傷，女性尤其嚴重。這種方法能否解決女性禿頭的問題值得觀察，因為看似正常的毛囊可能有問題。

【2006/10/08 聯合報】

Government backs baldness therapy

There is very little treatment for baldness

A UK biotechnology firm is developing a robot to grow hair follicle cells for use in treating baldness.

Intercytex has successfully tested a method of removing hair follicles from the back of the neck, multiplying them and then reimplanting the cells.

It now plans to use a £1.85m grant from the government to automate the process of growing the cells, meaning many more people could benefit.

The method could be used to treat male pattern baldness and alopecia in women.

The company, which is based in Cambridge and Manchester, won funding for the project from the Department of Trade and Industry's Technology Programme.

At the moment there's very little that works

Dr Nigel Hunt

Working alongside The Automation Partnership, which developed the robotic system for storing and growing the cells, it hopes to develop commercial scale production of the hair follicles - also known as dermal papilla cells.

The treatment was initially tested on seven men with male pattern baldness, five of whom grew hair, and is now being tested on a further 20.

During a 30-minute operation, hair follicles are taken from the back of the neck, then grown in culture until they number in the thousands.

They are then injected under the skin where the hair needs to grow back.

Click here to see hair cell treatment

The most common form of baldness is triggered by the male hormone dihydrotestosterone, which causes follicles to shrink and hair to thin, before it disappears altogether.

Intercytex chief executive Nick Higgins said in male pattern baldness the area at the back of the neck was unaffected by the hormone.

"We take a very small sample of the dermal papilla cells and then grow them in a special medium until we get ten thousand fold. Then we take a very fine needle and we inject them under the skin and the idea is at each point of injection a new hair will grow.

"The robot does two things - the cell culture growth phase takes about three weeks and involves lots of steps but we can programme it to do all the steps, and it can do 200 samples at once.

"The clever bit is we don't want to give the wrong person the wrong hair back."

He added that they would also be testing the method in cases of alopecia but said it would be about three years before the treatment would be available to the general public.

'Traumatic'

Dr Nigel Hunt, psychologist at the University of Nottingham and spokesperson for Alopecia UK, said hair loss was traumatic, especially for women.

"I'd want to see some results but if this is shown to work it will change things dramatically," he said. "At the moment there's very little that works.

"Hair loss affects people quite badly when it happens but the other thing is that people will try absolutely any treatment they can get their hands on, which in itself is difficult.

"It's important to make sure that people taking part in the trials are aware it may not work."

He added that it would be interesting to see if the treatment worked for alopecia because hair follicles that may appear to be functioning could have something wrong with them.

Science and Innovation Minister Lord David Sainsbury said: "This initiative provides a real opportunity to harness the world class expertise that we possess in the UK and direct it towards the task of wealth creation.

"Biotechnology is of crucial importance in our society. By providing a focus for collaboration and delivery, this partnership should establish British industry as the world leader in this area and an attractive proposition for investors."