Hair Cloning and Follicle Banking
This is an advanced technique not many hair restorations have experience with. However, it may be the perfect strategy to help you. Find out by requesting a consultation with Dr. Ken Williams.
What is Hair Cloning?
Hair Cloning has been proposed for many years as the ultimate treatment for hair loss. Hair transplantation successfully moves hairs from one region of the scalp to balding regions but is not able to increase the total number of hairs available.
Hair cloning would in effect, disassemble a few hair follicles, multiply these cells in the laboratory and then reintroduce them into the scalp to both rejuvenate miniaturized hair follicles and induce neogenesis of new hair follicles.
How Can Hair Cloning Help you?
- Improve Hair Strength
- Protect Hair Follicle Health
- Accelerate Hair Regrowth
When Will Hair Cloning Be Available?
HairClone™ has launched the world’s first follicle banking service and Orange County Hair Restoration is an authorized procurement center. The challenges now relate to developing systems to isolate and expand (clone) the dermal papilla cells to the standard that can be used in the clinic.
The importance of this is recognized by the fact that the UK Government has recently approved a grant to provide significant funds to enable HairClone™ to develop at this stage. The process will then require authorization from the various UK and US regulatory agencies before clinical trials can begin in the US.
Our Partnership with HairClone
Dr. Ken Williams and Orange County Hair Restoration announce their partnership with UK based HairClone™ for follicle banking and future clinical trials for cloning hair cells. As a founding clinical partner, Dr. Williams brings state-of-the-art and novel hair restoration technology and science to clinical practice for his male and female patients who suffer from hair loss disorders.
Established cell expansion systems that maintain the follicle cell phenotype using full genome arrays will be used. Cryopreservation, storage, shipment and shelf life of follicle cells are developed, and establishing methods to analyze clinical data in terms of cell migration, engraftment and modification of follicle and dermal structure will be scientifically investigated in the clinical trial.
The work will be carried out in collaboration with leading scientists in Manchester, Bradford, and London. Early work has already begun and HairClone™ were recently awarded an important grant by the UK Government to continue this work.
Need Your Hair Cloning?
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How Is Hair Cloning Done With The Hairclone™ Concept?
HairClone™ have launched the world’s first follicle banking service and Orange County Hair Restoration will be the only HairClone™ authorized procurement center in Orange County. 100 hair follicular units would be harvested by Dr. Williams or staff under local anesthesia. This procedure requires approximately 60 minutes to perform.
Our office will remove the harvested follicular units using a FUE device typically without sedation unless patient anxiety exists. The patient’s own native and existing hair will hide the harvest sites and postoperatively patients have no restrictions.. The harvested follicular units will be shipped to our affiliated clinic in the United Kingdom. The harvested follicles are then cryopreserved and stored in a government approved tissue bank until needed in the future.
Current federal laws prevent any treatments using cultured (cloned) hair follicle cells in the United States of America at this moment. What makes the work that HairClone™ is doing in partnership with Dr. Williams on hair cell cloning a great potential, is that the intention is that we can hold hair transplant surgery until necessary. In some patients with a strong family hair loss and who are young, the banked hair follicles could be used later in life with balding patterns.
The follicular units could be taken from the bank and processed to isolate the specific cells involved in the production of the hair shaft itself. These cells would be grown in culture in an approved UK government licensed laboratory. The follicles cells would divide and multiply rapidly over the subsequent 2-3 weeks.
These expanded cells would then be transported back to our affiliated hair restoration clinic in Manchester, England. Our affiliated physician could then micro-injects the cloned hair cells back into the patient’s scalp. The aim is that these cells migrate to miniaturizing cells replacing the cells that have been lost and existing villus hairs could transform back into thicker terminal hair shafts.
What Is Cryopreservation?
Cryopreservation is a process where biological constructs are preserved by cooling to very low temperatures (typically -80 °C or -196 °C using). Cryopreservation methods seek to reach these ultra low temperatures without causing additional damage caused by the formation of ice during freezing. At low enough temperatures, any chemical activity in the cells is effectively stopped and at these low temperatures cells can be stored for many years and if thawed correctly are then able to function normally. HairClone™ in partnership with a licensed tissue bank in the UK have developed the world’s first cryopreservation system for whole hair follicles that is approved by regulators for cryopreservation and banking of patients’ hair.
See if Hair Cloning technique is right for you
Speak with Dr. Ken Williams Today