SAN DIEGO STEM CELL THERAPY

Many patients are reporting great success with stem cell therapy for their hair loss. 

We use stem cell growth factors in essentially two different ways.

• As a stand-alone treatment for patients not quite ready for a surgical procedure.
• As a complement to our hair transplant procedure to help with the newly transplanted hairs or for areas that will not be transplanted in  the first procedure.

What are stem cells?

Before we get into our specific stem cell therapy treatments, it’s important to understand what stem cells are and how they work to help  with a variety of ailments. A stem cell is a type of “unspecified” or “undifferentiated” cell in the body. This means that they are, for the most part, a “blank canvas”  that can become other cell types that form in the human body. So, stem cells really have no function of their own, other than replicating other types of body cells. They then turn themselves into the type of cell that is needed and perform specific functions. Stem cells have been used for a long time in regenerative medicine. Medical practitioners have used stem cells to treat chronic medical  conditions, heal athletic injuries, restore joints, and more. Stem cell  therapy if fairly new to treating hair loss and there are a variety of  ways that doctors are using stem cells for hair loss.

Stem Cell Growth Factors for Hair Loss

Stem cells secrete growth factors. These growth factors are what is  used for hair loss therapy. See the next section below for a more  detailed explanation on where these growth factors come from and why  they’re used.  Stem cell therapy promotes healthy cell growth in parts of the body  that are either damaged or diseased. Stem cells also promote healing  properties in the human body and can help with the reduction of scarring  and inflammation. When utilizing stem cell growth factors for hair loss  treatments, the factors activate hair follicles that have become  dormant and have stopped growing hair.  Each hair follicle is basically a mini-organ that can become damaged  over time, which causes it to stop producing hair (due to a variety of  reasons). When stem cell growth factors are introduced to hair  follicles, they induce changes to both developing and mature follicles  by a process called “paracrine signaling."  So, stem cell growth factors  are injected into the scalp and are believed to cause a “paracrine  effect,"  which repairs the damage to the hair follicle and the  surrounding tissue, ultimately causing the hair cells to become more  active.

Where do these stem cell growth factors come from?

Stem cells can come from a variety of sources. We use a highly  concentrated form of mesenchymal stem cell growth factors that come from  human umbilical cords, but they are not embryonic (i.e., they are not  from an embryo, which would be illegal). These stem cell growth factors  are harvested from the umbilical cord of pregnant females, from  full-term pregnancies. The stem cells secrete a variety of growth  factors; these growth factors are then harvested, which is what we use  for our hair loss treatments. These are very common in medicine and we  believe these give our patients the best chance for getting the desired  results. These growth factors are the purest and most potent form of  stem cell therapy for hair loss and are normally 50+ times more  concentrated and potent than fat-derived stem cells.

Many doctors in the hair loss field use the patient’s own fat tissue  to derive the stem cells. While there may be some validity to that  process, we know that these types of stem cells are not nearly as potent  as the stem cell growth factors that we use. This is due to the fact  that fat-derived stem cells age as the patient ages (and basically  become impotent), and they simply differentiate into fat. Fat-derived  stem cells are only a small percentage as potent as stem cell growth factors. For example, fat-derived stem cells from a 40-year-old patient  are only 2% as potent as the umbilical cord stem cell growth factors that we use. Lastly, since hair follicles are in the skin, they are a  completely different stem cell derivation than fat-derived stem cells.

How are the stem cells administered to the patient?

Both of the above treatments, as a stand-alone and as a complement to a hair transplant surgery, are administered in essentially the same  way. This involves the injection of mesenchymal stem cell growth factors directly into parts of the scalp affected by hair loss. After the stem  cell growth factors are injected, then the hair starts to grow in about 1 month. This growth peaks in about 4-6 months. This is a simple  outpatient procedure that takes less than an hour.  When using stem cell therapy in conjunction with the hair transplant  procedure we will inject the stem cell growth factors into the scalp  where the new hairs are being placed. This will help with healing time  and what we call the “take rate” of the new hairs. This take rate is the  percentage of the new hairs that will take hold in the newly  transplanted site and grow. There are a variety of reasons why a hair  won’t take in the newly created site, but stem cell therapy can  significantly increase the likelihood of healing and growing.

Below are our 4 different treatment scenarios:

• As a stand-alone treatment in areas that are either bald or balding.  This could be as an alternative to hair transplantation. The crown  would be one area, the front another, or we can do both. This is good  for people who may be budget-conscious and/or are hesitant to go through  with surgery before exhausting less expensive / less invasive options.
• As a stand-alone treatment to stimulate transplant growth in areas  that were transplanted but have shown poor growth. This would be  applicable to patients who may have had a prior hair transplant surgery  and for whatever reason, some of the transplanted hairs are showing poor  growth.
• In conjunction with a hair transplant procedure in areas that are  NOT being transplanted. This would essentially target a balding area of  the head where the patient is not going to transplant hair. This could  be for patients who are getting the front of their head transplanted but  are choosing not to get transplants in the crown on the first  procedure. This is normally done so that patients can see if they  respond in the crown to this treatment. If they do respond, this will  allow more grafts to be transplanted to the front for a fuller front and  allow for more hair growth in the crown than would be possible with  transplants alone.
• In conjunction with a hair transplant procedure where we attempt to  stimulate more robust graft growth.  The stem cell growth factors are  added to the graft preservation solution and then the preservation  solution, with the stem cell growth factors, is completely injected into  the scalp.