Causes of hair loss A number of things can cause hair loss. • Hormonal problems may cause hair loss. If your thyroid gland is overactive or underactive, your hair may fall out. Hair loss may occur if male or female hormones, known as androgens and estrogens, are out of balance. • Some medicines can cause hair loss. Medicines that can cause hair loss include blood thinners (also called anticoagulants), medicines used for gout, medicines used in chemotherapy to treat cancer, vitamin A (if too much is taken), medicine used for: depression, heart problems, high blood pressure, or blood thinner, or birth control pills. • Certain infections can cause hair loss. Fungal infections of the scalp can cause hair loss even in children. • Hair loss may occur as part of an underlying disease, such as lupus or diabetes. • Some people, who go on crash diets that are low in protein, or have severely abnormal eating habits, may develop protein malnutrition. The body will save protein by shifting growing hairs into the resting phase. • Also, there are many emotional, diet o live style related factors as stress or depression; that can cause hair loss. Hair loss as a degenerative disease The most common way to solve any problem is to find its causes, then attack the origin in order to solve the problem. But in hair loss, with so many causes, it has been very difficult to find out any solution by this way. New researches about what occurs with hair follicle during the hair loss are beginning to clarify the picture of hair loss. It is important to understand the normal hair growth cycle to understand why hair loss occurs. The hair follicle is an anatomical structure which evolved to produce and extrude (push out) a hair shaft. Hair is made up of proteins called keratins. Human hair grows in a continuous cyclic pattern of growth and rest known as the "hair growth cycle." This three cycle phases, is repeated several times during the live by a healthy follicle. 1. Anagen or growth phase, it takes between two and eight years. 2. Catagen or degradation phase, it takes two to four weeks, in which the follicle is almost totally degraded. 3. Telogen or resting phase, last two to four weeks, in which the follicle is almost totally degraded On average 50-100 telogen hairs are shed every day. This is normal hair loss and accounts for the hair loss seen every day in the shower and with hair combing. These hairs will regrow. Not more than 10 percent of the follicles are in the resting phase (telogen) at any time. A variety of factors can affect the hair growth cycle and cause temporary or permanent hair loss (alopecia) including medication, radiation, chemotherapy, exposure to chemicals, hormonal and nutritional factors, thyroid disease, generalized or local skin disease, and stress. All those factors affect the hair follicle, making them lost their ability to produce healthy hair. The lost of potential in the follicle hair is a degenerative processes. The next figure shows miniaturization of the hair follicle in pattern hair loss. Hair grows for shorter periods of time and becomes smaller, finer, and lighter as it approaches the vellus stage. A degenerative disease is one in which the function or structure of the affected tissues or organs changes for the worse over time whether due to normal bodily wear or lifestyle choices such as exercise or eating habits. As we had seen, there are several causes for the degenerative process occurs in the hair follicle. There are many degenerative diseases as: cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Diabetes or Osteoporosis. All they have many and no well know causes, but a crystal clear effect: the damage over the tissues goes from bad to worst if you don’t stop it. Embryonic Cell power in Embryox A healthy hair follicle repeats the "hair growth cycle" cautiously, but when some of the factors that induces the degenerative process; the Hair grows for shorter periods of time and becomes smaller, finer, and lighter as it approaches the vellus stage, as we had seen before. But how we can stop this process and even more, how we can reverse it? In the very early development of the human embryo, there is no indication of anything resembling a hair follicle. Neither is there an indication of anything resembling bone, nerves, internal organs or skin. The only cells in the early human embryo are precursor cells—stem cells—that are nudged into becoming specialized bone, nerve, internal organ or skin cells by the action of genes and the growth-and-development molecules produced by genes. The stem cells present in the embryo stage have a not yet understand capability to growth into different tissues and to reproduce endless. The mature cells have a “counter down” systems that limit the growth of the cells. A degenerative process increases the counter down speed. That is what occurs in the hair loss process. The hair follicle cells began to die a no new ones are produced to replace it. The embryonic cells have some genetic information that lets them growth and growth. Some researches had discovered that the embryonic cells can transmit this information to the dying cells, make then growth again or resetting the “counter down” system. All this is genetic information at molecular level. The exact nature of these molecular signals has not been well understood, but has long been sought. Recent research in mice has revealed more about the nature of the molecular signals, telling investigators more about the process of “budding”, and laying down a new line of research into cellular development from stem cells [Jamora C et al. Links between signal transduction, transcription and adhesion in epithelial bud development. Nature 2003; 422:317-322.]. The researchers discovers about how works the hair follicle at the molecular level, let develop successful therapies for hair loss such as more powerful hair growth stimulators and even gene therapy and cloning. That is how the Embryox principle works. Embryox have embryonic cells with genetic information that stop and reverse the degenerative process in the hair follicle. The research reported by the investigators at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rockefeller University, New York, is beginning to clarify the picture of hair follicle development at the stem cell level. The investigators have identified the signaling molecules that act under genetic instruction to up-regulate and down-regulate the genes directly involved in epithelial budding and follicle cell specialization. In research with mice, the investigators found that up- or down-regulation of the genes can produce hairy mice or bald mice—that is, force the development of extra hair follicles or impair the development of hair follicles and other organs. These findings may, over time, contribute to better understanding of the processes by which other tissues such as teeth, bone, internal organs and limbs develop from epithelial buds. These findings shed new light on the molecular mechanism underlying the early steps of epithelial development, a process that is anticipated to have implications that extend beyond the hair follicle. Those implications include better understanding of organ development, and of the development of cancers from epithelial tissue. The investigators are currently using the development of hair follicles as a model system to learn more about epithelial budding and its implications for specialized cell formation.