June 18, 2003, -- Nagoya, Japan - Scientists at the 26th Annual Meeting of The Japanese Society for Biomedical Gerontology held at the Nagoya Congress Center in Japan, announced today that they had discovered new proteins that promote hair growth.

Nagoya Congress Center in Japan

Researchers working for the Lion Corporation, a large manufacturer of household products and chemicals in Japan, worked together with a group of dermatologists from the University of Tokushima's School of Medicine to genetically analyze the mechanism of hair growth.

Their study began with a comparison of different parts of the head. The researchers collected and cultivated hair root cells from parts of the head that had gone bald and parts of the head that still had hair. Samples were taken from men suffering from various forms of hair loss, including receding hairlines and hair loss at the crown of the head.

After studying the composition of proteins in the cultivated cells, researchers found that cells taken from skin that had lost hair contain a considerably smaller amount of two kinds of proteins: bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), which promotes the formation of bones, and ephrin, which stimulates the formation of blood vessels.

They also discovered that the two proteins promote the multiplication of hair follicle cells, thereby contributing to hair growth.

Taking these findings into account, the researchers then added a variety of materials to the hair root cells. As a result, when 6-benzyl aminopurine, a chemical used to accelerate the growth of flowers and plants, was added to the cells, the amount of BMP and ephrin increased. Researchers also found that 6-benzyl aminopurine decreases the amount of NT-4, a substance that has already been shown to promote hair loss.

The company says the findings show that BMP and ephrin influence hair growth, while 6-benzyl aminopurine is effective in both preventing hair loss and promoting hair growth.

The company, which already sells hair loss products in Japan and Korea, aims to develop a new hair loss treatment using their findings, a spokeswoman said. But she said the company could not say how soon it would develop a new product as research is still in its early stages.