Row A - mice before the experiment. In row B, they are the same three days after a five-day series of injections. In row C - they are the same in four weeks
While researching the effect of anti-stress drugs on the digestive tract, scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles unexpectedly discovered a remedy for baldness
In their experiments, they used genetically modified mice suffering from overproduction of the stress hormone CRF (corticotrophin-releasing factor). Such mice, as a rule, begin to grow bald with age. The mice were injected with astressin-B, which blocks the action of CRF. Three months later, they decided to conduct a gastroenterological examination of the mice … and could not distinguish genetically modified mice from ordinary mice in the control group - almost all of them, previously bald, were thickly overgrown with hair.
The researchers were amazed not only by the very fact of hair restoration, but also by the extremely long-lasting effect of the drug - injections were made for five days, one injection per day, and the effect of the drug was felt even after four months. Considering that mice live no more than two years, this is a whole decade by human standards.
Subsequent experiments confirmed the original result. When Astressin-B was given to young genetically altered mice who had not yet had time to go bald, the drug prevented hair loss.
It has long been known that stress causes not only graying, but baldness too. However, until now, none of the miraculous remedies, sometimes based on anti-stress drugs, has led to a complete restoration of the hairline and has not produced such a long-term effect. Until now, the drug has only been tested in mice, and whether it will work in the same way in humans is still unknown. But there is hope for that. First, they tried to treat baldness with a "human" drug for bald mutant mice. It worked on rodents just like it does on humans - with modest results. Second, the stress hormone is also present in human skin, so it can be assumed that the mechanism of hair loss in humans and mice is the same.