Tag Archives: hair

Depigmented mice get back to black

After successfully preventing and reversing vitiligo in two different mouse models, I. Caroline Le Poole (Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL) and her colleagues have applied for a patent and are seeking regulatory approval and funding to carry out a clinical trial. The basis of their new treatment is a mutant version of the heat-shock proteinContinueContinue reading “Depigmented mice get back to black”

The root of male pattern baldness

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA), more commonly known as male pattern baldness, occurs in almost 80% of men during their lifetimes. Despite this high prevalence, little is known about its causes or potential treatments. George Cotsarelis (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) and colleagues sought to identify genetic factors involved in the condition by comparing gene expression levels inContinueContinue reading “The root of male pattern baldness”

Wrinkle-free

Would you rather be wrinkly or bald? Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis recently described the positional cloning of a spontaneous mutation in wrinkle-free mice (wrfr), grafted skin from which is defective in hair growth. The homozygous mutant mice have extremely thick and tight skin with no wrinkles, but don’t throw out that wrinkleContinueContinue reading “Wrinkle-free”