Here Is What We Know About SM04554

There is new hope that a cure for baldness is on the horizon. Apparently, this new drug can reverse hair loss, and this promise gives hope to millions. The drug is produced by the company Samumed, and they have completed a trial of this new drug. The drug is called SM04554, and shows promise in treating male pattern baldness.

About 35 million men in the US have male pattern baldness to contend with as they get older. This drug was tested on 302 men between the ages of 18 and 15, according to the medical research company, and this new drug was quickly found to increase hair count and also to increase hair density in men who are balding.

This brings promise for so many, for many men look in the mirror and see only that they are losing their hair. And in the past 15 years, there are only two drugs that have been approved to treat male pattern baldness. Now, with the introduction of SM04554, Samumed tells us that change is in the air.

The new drug works by opening up signaling pathways in the body's cells, and the SM04554 is actually a small molecule compound that does so quickly and with great luck, initiating and maintaining the growth of hair where other drugs in the past may have failed to do so.

After the 135 day trial, the men in the study showed great increases in hair growth and density. The trial looked at the hair of 302 men, and they were split up into three groups. One group received a placebo, one group received a 0.15 percent solution, and another group received a 0.25 percent solution.

These 302 men took the drug for 90 days at a rate of once a day, and they had a follow-up 45 days later. The men who took the solutions were found to have greater hair growth and greater hair density than those men who took the placebo. Apparently, the drug was found to be helpful and useful on all accounts. All that's needed is further research into the possibilities for curing male-pattern baldness.  If all goes as planned SM04554 could be available in the next four to five years.

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In mouse study, scientists say they've used stem cells to grow large numbers of active follicles

TUESDAY, Jan. 28, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists might be able to offer "hair-challenged" males a new glimmer of hope when it comes to reversing baldness. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania say they've gotten closer to being able to use stem cells to treat thinning hair -- at least in mice. The researchers said that although using stem cells to regenerate missing or dying hair follicles is considered a potential way to reverse hair loss, it hasn't been possible to create adequate numbers of hair-follicle-generating stem cells -- specifically cells of the epithelium, the name for tissues covering the surface of the body.

But new findings indicate that this may now be achievable.

"This is the first time anyone has made scalable amounts of epithelial stem cells that are capable of generating the epithelial component of hair follicles," Dr. Xiaowei Xu, an associate professor of dermatology at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, said in a university news release.

Those cells have many potential applications that extend to wound healing, cosmetics and hair regeneration, Xu said.

In the new study, Xu's team converted induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) -- reprogrammed adult stem cells with many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells -- into epithelial stem cells. This is the first time this has been done in either mice or people, the researchers said.

The epithelial stem cells were mixed with certain other cells and implanted into mice. They produced the outermost layers of skin cells and follicles that are similar to human hair follicles, according to the study, which was published Jan. 28 in the journal Nature Communications. This suggests that these cells might eventually help regenerate hair in people, the researchers said.

Xu said this achievement with iPSC-derived epithelial stem cells does not mean that a treatment for baldness is around the corner. A hair follicle contains both epithelial cells and a second type of adult stem cell called dermal papillae.

"When a person loses hair, they lose both types of cells," Xu said. "We have solved one major problem -- the epithelial component of the hair follicle. We need to figure out a way to also make new dermal papillae cells, and no one has figured that part out yet."

Experts also note that studies conducted in animals often fail when tested in humans.

Both men and women tend to develop thinner hair as they age, however smoking can accelerate this process.

Cigarette smoke enters the bloodstream through the lungs and is carried by the circulatory system to every part of the body. The result is that the cells of the smoker’s body are bathed in the more than 4,000 chemicals and gasses found in cigarette smoke. No part of the body is truly exempt from the toxins in cigarettes, and even hair follicles can suffer from damage.

Smoking Damages Your Hair

Experts think the toxic chemicals in smoke can damage the DNA in hair follicles causing them to shrink and wither. Unhealthy follicles simply cannot produce healthy hair, making smokers much more likely to have damaged and thinning hair or go bald.

Smokers Go Gray Quicker

Smoke restricts the blood flow to the follicles, prematurely aging them and causing gray hairs to appear earlier in life than they otherwise would.

Smokeing Can Cause Hair Loss

Cigarettes also increase the amount of the hormone DHT in the body – a hormone known to contribute to hair loss.

Smoker Hair Smells

The odor of cigarette smoke is also easily held by the hair and skin, causing even clean hair to smell like stale smoke - yuk!

News is Worse for Men that Smoke

Men who smoke are about twice as likely to lose their hair as nonsmokers, after taking into account factors that increase the risk of baldness, such as aging and genetics, according to a 2007 study in Taiwan.