Can the Cure for Baldness be Found in a French Fry?
Researchers have potentially found a cure for baldness in an unexpected place – McDonald’s french fries. Researchersat Yokohama National University found that, by using a chemical that is added to the oil at McDonald’s (dimethylpolysiloxane (PDMS), which is used to prevent oil from foaming and spitting during the frying process), they were able to mass-produce “hair follicle germs” (HFG) “that could lead to a new, more effective treatment for hair-loss and male-pattern baldness,” IFLScience.com reported.
HFGs are responsible for hair growth and, until now, had never been regenerated before. The team was able to mass-produce 5000 HFGs simultaneously. Tests on bald mice saw signs of “efficient hair-follicle and shaft generation” as well as hair that continued to grow. “This simple method is very robust and promising,” study author Junji Fukuda said in a statement. “We hope that this technique will improve human hair regenerative therapy to treat hair loss such as androgenic alopecia. In fact, we have preliminary data that suggests human HFG formation using human keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells.”
Read their study in Biomaterials.
