Good Times

This particular arena of medical science research  is very progressive currently. These are good times for anyone suffering from hairloss and or male/female pattern baldness

9 Responses to “Good Times”

  1. admin says:

    ACell Hair Multiplication Study at NHI

    November 5 2010, 3:55 pm PT | Posted in: Hair Cloning + Hair
    Transplantation

    ACellLast week I wrote about the ACell presentation at the recent
    International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) meeting that may
    have opened the possibility for a patient’s hair to be multiplied in his or
    her own scalp. ACell’s MatriStem has had some early success with growing
    hairs that were plucked and then placed into recipient sites on the patient’s
    scalp, and although this is a major breakthrough, significant work remains
    before this becomes a practical hair loss treatment.

    For those that missed my post from last week, here is a little background –

    ACell, Inc. has developed and refined an Extracellular Matrix (ECM), a
    natural biological material derived from porcine (pig) tissue. When ACell’s
    MatriStem product is placed into a surgical site or wound, it is reabsorbed
    and replaced with new, more supple tissue, rather than a firm scar. The ECM
    stimulates the body’s own cells to form new tissue specific to that site.
    When applied to hairs plucked from elsewhere on the body, this is called
    “auto-cloning”, as new hairs are derived from the process.

    We are currently studying the use of ACell for scalp hair multiplication
    (auto-cloning) as well as the facilitation of wound healing in follicular
    unit transplantation procedures. For those individuals interested in
    auto-cloning, we will be happy to see you in the office for a more in-depth
    discussion of the opportunity. Details will not be discussed over the phone
    but will be covered by the doctor during your consultation.

    People interested in working with us in a study can participate for only the
    cost of supplies. Because of the newness of the process, we will be
    selective as to which patients we accept. Patients interested in
    auto-cloning who are not selected for a study can obtain this procedure as
    well for an additional fee. Please call my office at 310-553-9113 to set up
    an appointment for a consultation.

  2. admin says:

    Gary Hitzig, M.D. Makes Further Breakthroughs in Hair Cloning

    Hitzig perfects technique using MatriStem and finds wound healing powder accelerates hair growth and wound healing in half the time.

    New York, NY, November 11, 2010 –(PR.com)– Gary Hitzig, M.D., a leading hair transplant researcher and surgeon based in New York, has continued to make significant breakthroughs in hair cloning and has found a way to significantly increase the rate of hair growth using the ACell wound healing powder MatriStem® MicroMatrix™. In late 2009, Dr. Hitzig and Jerry Cooley, M.D., were the first medical doctors to successfully clone hair using the FDA-cleared wound healing powder. Dr. Hitzig has continued his research and has made further breakthroughs in the field of hair restoration.

    Using MatriStem, Hitzig and Cooley created a technique that multiplies the number of hair follicles in an area that had previously stopped growing hair. Now, Hitzig has found a way to accelerate the rate of hair growth in half the time and heal scars from the donor area in weeks instead of months.

    Hitzig discovered that if you dissolve the MatriStem powder in an arterial blood serum rich in the patient’s adult stem cells and inject it into the donor area and top of scalp where hair is being transplanted, the powder and blood serum combination acts like a hair growth accelerator and fertilizer. Patients experienced significant hair re-growth in just six months versus 12 months and the wound where donor hair had been taken and transplanted was completely healed – with little or no signs of a scar – within a few weeks versus several months and more scarring with previous methods.

    View patient before and after photos: http://www.nyhairloss.com

    “I needed a way to dissolve the MatriStem powder into the donor and transplanted areas on the scalp,” said Dr. Hitzig. “Knowing that our adult stem cells contain properties that allow the body to regenerate original tissue complete with hair follicles made it a perfect solution to dissolve the wound healing powder. I expected it to help re-grow hair, but found its capabilities to accelerate hair growth and wound healing to be a significant and extremely positive breakthrough.”

    Hitzig has also discovered that the powder and arterial blood serum combination enabled him to use new hair growth that had previously been transplanted as a donor area to re-grow hair with the same results as using a natural donor area.

    MatriStem MicroMatrix, a product of regenerative medicine innovator, ACell, Inc., is a wound healing powder that promotes healing and tissue growth and has now proven to help regenerate hair in the donor and recipient regions of hair transplant patients. While intended for diabetic ulcers, venous ulcers, pressure ulcers, traumatic wounds, second degree burns, surgical wounds (donor sites/grafts) and trauma wounds, Hitzig and Cooley found its properties to offer a broader scope of treatment, including hair cloning.

    MatriStem fundamentally changes wound healing by triggering new blood vessel formation at the wound site, as well as providing a favorable substrate for host cell attachment, proliferation and differentiation.

  3. admin says:

    Follow-Up – Dr Cooley’s ISHRS ACell Presentation
    November 10 2010

    One commenter from a couple weeks ago asked about the recollection of the Jerry Cooley, M.D. presentation at the ISHRS meeting on the use of ACell and hair multiplication. The comment was: “The doc still has not addressed why in his previous post about Acell he said Dr. Cooley’s results are less than 50% growth while Dr. Cooley has maintained all along – and proved – that his results are actually 75% regrowth and rising as he refines his technique.”

    The following is the abstract published by Dr. Cooley: “ACell MatriStem MicroMatrix is an FDA approved agent for wound healing. Use in other fields has demonstrated benefits for healing injuries as an adjunct to surgery. The author shares anecdotal experience using this product over the past 18 months. Areas covered include the effects of MatriStem on strip harvest healing. FUE and punch harvest sites, standard FU grafts as well as its use with the so-called ‘autocloning’ technique in which plucked hair is used for grafting. Initial results are promising and hopefully continued research will help define the potential role of this agent in hair restoration.”

    Dr. Cooley discussed the variable results from his work with hair growth after the plucked procedure was done. He did mention that over the course of his work, the survival of plucked hairs increased. The 75% number made by the commenting individual may have reflected Dr. Cooley’s end survival. Unfortunately, there was not a written summary written by Dr. Cooley that discussed his study over a large number of patients.

    Dr. Cooley suggested the number be anywhere between 50-80%, though he did also say, “I would be hesitant to claim the upper number at this time.” There is little doubt that even a 50% new hair success rate would be a terrific breakthrough. As we progress with our own double blind study and a statistically significant group of patients, the actual numbers should become evident.

  4. admin says:

    The hair follicle created by bioengineers at the capital’s Technical University (TU) is somewhat thinner than a normal scalp follicle, but will provide both hair implant possibilities and end the need for millions of animal tests in the future, daily Die Welt said.

    Created by bioengineer and doctor Roland Lauster and his team, the hair follicle can be used to research the causes of hair loss, and may also be used for more effective implants than hair plugs – after clinical studies, of course.

    “Preparations for this are already in motion,” Lauster told Die Welt.

    Additional purposes may include research on hair growth, structure and pigmentation, as well as the effects of toxic substances.

    Nanoparticles enter the skin through hair follicles, thus the new invention could tap into the enormous cosmetic testing market, which has seen the number of animal experiments explode in recent years, the paper said.

    “Since 1950, the development of new chemicals has gone up 500-fold, and so has the number of animal tests for the licensing of these,” Lauster said.

    Skin and hair follicles created in a lab could replace the need for test animals, the paper wrote.

    The professor plans to team up with Dr. Uwe Marx to establish a hair follicle test system, then move on to creating a miniature liver, kidney and bone marrow to form a multi-organ biochip to test pharmaceutical and cosmetic substances.

    The biochip, to be created at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology, will enable the cells and mini-organs to work together in a closed circuit.

    “Building large organs such as complete livers or kidneys has not yet worked, but miniature organs have,” Lauster told the paper.

    In the future, hundreds of these biochips could be used to “quickly and safely” test the toxic effects of hundreds of substances, he added.

  5. admin says:

    Some very interesting information on Trichoscience:
    http://google.brand.edgar-online.com/DisplayFiling.aspx?TabIndex=2&FilingID=7626326&companyid=386723&ppu=%252fdefault.aspx%253fcompanyid%253d386723

    Go to Item 4 and click to read the details about their trial which has already begun. The first biopsy was in December 2010 with the first injections planned for mid this February 2011. Also there is some interesting comments about the regulatory approval. If you are interested, you can click on other items to get some detailed background on Trichoscience.

  6. admin says:

    All 19 Subjects in RepliCel’s TS001-2009 Clinical Trial Complete Six-Month Follow-up Visit

    April 3, 2012

    VANCOUVER, BC – April 3, 2012 – RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. (the “Company” or “RepliCel”) (OTCBB: REPCF) is pleased to report that all 19 subjects have completed their six-month post injection follow-up visit and the company remains on schedule to release the initial review of efficacy results in April 2012. The data collected from the first six months following injection will be used for assessment of the primary safety and secondary safety and efficacy endpoints for the TS001-2009 clinical trial.

    In March and throughout the month of April 2012, the TS001-2009 study team will be retrieving data from the study centre in Tbilisi, Georgia and sending it to an independent clinical research organization data management team in Munich, Germany. Once received, it is entered into a database and reviewed for any anomalies in the collected data. These anomalies are then sent to the study centre for clarification and/or correction. These standard reviews ensure accuracy in the information collected for the study.

    The TS001-2009 study is being conducted in a placebo-controlled and ‘blinded’ fashion; that is, neither patient, nor assessor is aware of what site received injections of placebo or active treatment with cells. This blinding is maintained throughout the data collection, entry, and cleaning process as the treatment assignments are maintained by an independent party removed from patient assessment or data management. Only when all reviews have been completed and queries answered, the database containing the collected information will be ‘locked’ (a state where information in the database is final) and the treatment assignments revealed (also referred to as ‘un-blinding’).

    Subject efficacy at 6-months post injection is the first step in measuring a treatment response. All subjects will continue to participate in the post injection follow-up period of the study until August 2013 and a review of final safety and efficacy results will commence before the end of 2013. The continued follow-up period is a key component of the study to confirm treatment safety profile and response trends at 6, 12 and 24 months.

    The initial data from RepliCel’s 6-month subject follow-up will be used in the Company’s Investigational Medical Product Dossier (IMPD), which is presently being developed for a Phase IIb dose-ranging clinical trial of 100 patients that is expected to commence in fall 2012. The protocol will be submitted to the EMEA, FDA and Health Canada for review. A final decision on the location of the trial is pending.

    About RepliCel Life Sciences
    The Company has developed RepliCel™, a natural hair cell replication technology that has the potential to become the world’s first, minimally invasive solution for androgenetic alopecia and general hair loss in men and women. RepliCel™ is based on autologous cell implantation technology that replicates a patient’s hair cells from their own healthy hair follicles and, when reintroduced into areas of hair loss, the Company hopes to initiate natural hair regeneration. Patents for the technology have been issued by the European Union and Australia and are pending in other major international jurisdictions. The RepliCel™ procedure has been developed over the past nine years by the Company’s recognized research scientists and medical experts – specialists in the fields of hair growth, hair biology and dermatology. Additional information on RepliCel is available at http://www.replicel.com.

    For more information please contact:
    Tammey George, Director of Communications
    Telephone: 604-248-8696
    tg@replicel.com
    http://www.replicel.com

    Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements
    This press release contains projections and forward-looking statements, as that term is defined under applicable securities laws. Statements in this press release, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements that relate to the Company’s expected timeline regarding the timing and objectives of the interim analysis to be completed after the completion of the final patient’s six month follow-up visit, the participation of subjects after completion of such analysis and the timing of the expected commencement of the Company’s Phase IIb clinical trial. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks which may cause actual results and the Company’s plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information, including: negative results from the Company’s clinical trials; the effects of government regulation on the Company’s business; risks associated with the Company’s ability to obtain and protect rights to its intellectual property; risks and uncertainties associated with the Company’s ability to raise additional capital; and other factors beyond the Company’s control. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity or performance. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and, except as required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all of such factors and to assess in advance the impact of such factors on the Company’s business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Readers should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factor disclosure outlined in the Company’s annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010 and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Edgar at http://www.sec.gov and with the British Columbia Securities Commission on Sedar at http://www.sedar.com.

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