Risks of follicle cloning?

[hardcastle]

I just ran across this article:

http://www.hairdoc.com/book/chapter17.html

"There will still be some problems associated with cloning. One is an increased risk of cancer. The growth-inducing chemicals such as tetradecanoylphorbol acetate (TPA) used to stimulate cellular proliferation for cloning frequently promote tumors and cancer. While cancer risk is low for most cloned cell products, cloning hair follicle stem cells is riskier.

Dermatologists have observed that many basal cell carcinomas, a type of skin cancer that is the most common human tumor, seem to originate from the hair follicle. Cotsarelis notes in the 2000 paper presented in "Dermatology Focus": "the fact that that basal cell carcinomas are slow-growing tumors composed of poorly differentiated cells that have the ability to differentiate into various adnexal structures strongly suggests that the cell of origin is a pluripotent, slowly cycling stem cell with a highly proliferative potential." What he's saying is that molecular and genetic evidence points to the hair follicle stem cell as the source for this common form of cancer. Cloning hair follicle stem cells with cancer-inducing chemicals will require many years of study to assure the safety of the cloned follicles that result."

Thoughts? I'm not trying to dash any hopes, because I'd like to see a solution as much as anyone else. But this sounds like a potentially serious - and not easily detectable - problem.

 

[fallicule]

Yeah i'd like to know what people think of this, too.

But that's a good post hardcastle...

Cloning hair follicle stem cells with cancer-inducing chemicals will require many years of study to assure the safety of the cloned follicles that result.

If this is true I'd say best case scenerio of 4 years was premature. Assuming their isnt any serious cancer problems relating to this procedure, I'd imagine that for the proper tests to be completed it would take a good amount of time and research. Unless, of course, they're doing that now.

Either way... looks potentially scary.

 

[Fallout Boy]

Which Phase is the one where they test how safe it its? Because Intercytex will be doing that soon if everything is on schedule. Phase I is said to be already complete

 

[hardcastle]

It's definitely a scary thought, but there's no need to lose hope yet. According to that article, Cotsarelis' paper came out in 2000, so the cancer properties of cloned hair follicles should be relatively old news to the scientists that are trying to do this - it isn't like this is something they just discovered and they now have to rethink their whole way of doing things. It was Cotsarelis himself who grew hair in mice four years after he wrote that paper (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medical ... ewsid=7786). I haven't heard the long-term results of that experiment, but Cotsarelis didn't mention cancer concerns in the articles I read.

This is something to think about, definitely, but the process isn't going to get FDA approval if it's known to cause cancer. I'll be interested to see the results of the upcoming Trichocyte tests.

 

[hardcastle]

One otther thing I just remembered, too - wasn't Cotsarelis a consultant for Bosley at some point?

 

[fallicule]

"Which Phase is the one where they test how safe it its? Because Intercytex will be doing that soon if everything is on schedule. Phase I is said to be already complete"



Well I would imagine that if cancer was an issue it could come about in the long-term. So my uneducated opinion is that if the implanted cells led to cancer growths there is a chance they wouldnt know about it for years to come. I don't know what phase (if any) this would apply to, but I doubt the technology is old enough as to where they could have effectively monitored the long-term safety of it.

 

[DarklyCharming]

From the medical online journal Med-Broadcast:

"Safety is another concern. Before hair follicle cloning can move forward, scientists have to ensure that the implantation of reproduced collections of cells can be done without the risk of cancerous tumors developing, Dr. Cooley explained. Thus far, cell therapy is being researched in many other medical conditions without an increase in cancer risk, so the likelihood is low.

Because the cells being injected are replicated from cells that come from same patient, safety concerns should be minimized, Dr. Stenn said."

April 25th 2003

 

[Fallout Boy]

From the medical online journal Med-Broadcast:

"Safety is another concern. Before hair follicle cloning can move forward, scientists have to ensure that the implantation of reproduced collections of cells can be done without the risk of cancerous tumors developing, Dr. Cooley explained. Thus far, cell therapy is being researched in many other medical conditions without an increase in cancer risk, so the likelihood is low.

Because the cells being injected are replicated from cells that come from same patient, safety concerns should be minimized, Dr. Stenn said."

April 25th 2003

Thanks again for the info Darkly! You find awesome HM infol

 

[2young]

Apparently, the risk of cancer is associated with how many generations of cells are grown outside the body, and is related to an enzyme called telomerase. I found an interesting article here: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns? ... 624965.200

If what this article says is true, and I admit it's not directly related to hair multiplication, then there may be limits on how many cells they can grow for injection. I wouldn't get too worried about that though, because in 6 generations (the proposed limit the research suggested) 1 cell mulitiplies into 64 cells.

 

[maradona]

There have been no reported risks to this date from this type of treatments.

However there may be underireable side effects which include:

- A ROCKING FULL HEAD OF HAIR MAKING IT HARD TO STYLE.
- LIMP DICK AND BROKEN BACKS DUE TO LOTS OF SEX WITH YOUNG HAWT CHICKS

and lastly of course the most dangerous:

- SUPER CONFIDENCE TO CONQUER THE UNIVERSE AS JOE FROM STATEN ISLAND SAID

unk:


of course there might be more but from "MY RESEARCH", these are all I could figure out as there have been no reported really bad side effects involved in using your own cells (not stem cells) to this date (not replicel but many other treatments not for hair loss).