Unsightly skin moles may offer a possible avenue to treat hair loss, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature.
For nearly a decade, scientists at the University of California, Irvine have been studying skin moles to understand why they produce such long hairs. Their new paper shows that such moles contain particular molecules that promote hair growth.
"Nature gave us clues in those hairy skin moles," said Maksim Plikus, the study's lead author and a professor of developmental and cell biology at UC, Irvine.
People normally shed between 50 and 100 hairs per day, then generate new hair from the stem cells in hair follicles. But in individuals with baldness or pattern baldness — what doctors call alopecia or androgenic alopecia — the stem cells lie dormant, so new hair can’t grow.
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In experiments involving mice, Plikus and his research team demonstrated that a molecule called osteopontin, which is especially prominent in hairy skin moles, could activate hair follicle stem cells that were previously dormant.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.
