In a bid to find a definitive treatment for alopecia (hair loss), experts at Kyocera Corp., government-affiliated scientific research institute Riken and startup firm Organ Technologies Inc., are in the process of developing technologies and products that would aid regeneration of hair follicles in balding men and women.
The three have entered into a partnership and are aiming to put their products and technologies to use by 2020. In fact, the companies are experts in the field of regeneration medicine and will focus on the commercialization of a hair follicle treatment model, promoted by a Riken team.
After a successful follicle regeneration experiment in mice, the researchers involved in the study, took hair tissues from patients' scalp and developed two different cells from them. The two cells were combined to produce regenerated follicular primordial, which was then grafted into thin hair parts of patients. This increased the number of hairs on the patients' scalps.
In order to establish a certain method for cell proliferation, Organ Technologies and Riken will be working together and Kyocera will play a major role in developing technologies using its micro-fabrication technology to mechanize cell cultivation and processing, reports The Japan Times.
Alopecia affects more than 18 million people in Japan and conventional treatments such as hair transplantation and hair growth tonic sometimes fail miserably for many. However, advancing technologies have brought fresh hopes in hair follicle regeneration that sparks hair growth.
These three companies are not the only ones investing in alopecia cure. As per a Forbes report, regeneration methodologies are also being pursued by Japan cosmetics manufacturer Shiseido, who is working closely with Canada's RepliCel Life and Sciences.
They are developing their regenerative process and want to introduce a treatment in the market as early as 2018 for $1,000. Experts at California's Sanford-Burham Medical Research Institute are also reportedly working on similar treatments.
