As with many medical discoveries, U.S. researchers may have accidentally stumbled upon a cure for baldness.
Researchers made the breakthrough while testing the effects of a stress-reducing chemical compound on a group of hairless mice. Three months after the treatments, the mice had grown back all of their hair. Researchers duplicated the results in several repeated experiments. The compound also prevented hair loss in young mice.
While researchers are hopeful that this could lead to a breakthrough therapy for human baldness, they stress there is no way to know if the compound will translate to humans.
UCLA professor of medicine and co-author of the study, Yvette Tache, said it could take up to five years to start clinical trials in humans.
Additional information on the study can be found on the online journal PLoS One.
