A study conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) showed that in mouse experiments, minoxidil solution exhibited a significant effect in promoting faster and denser hair growth. The underlying mechanism of this phenomenon is that minoxidil solution can stimulate the production of a protein that promotes the growth of skin blood vessels. The experimental results showed that although the number of hair follicles in mice treated with minoxidil solution did not increase compared to normal mice, the volume of a single hair follicle significantly increased. Overall, the total amount of hair in mice treated with this solution increased by 70%.
If this protein also has the same “superpower” in humans, it may lead to the first angiogenesis therapy for male androgenic alopecia! Michael Detmar, associate professor of dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the lead author of the study, joked, “When it comes to male hair loss, hair follicles are not ‘evaporated’, they just become tiny hair follicles. If someone can find a way to make hair follicles’ grow up ‘, men may be able to’ shine ‘again!” In fact, increasing scalp blood flow can help prevent hair loss, which is not a new thing for many hairdressers. For so many years, they have been persuading customers to massage their scalp, claiming that it can stimulate blood circulation and promote healthy hair growth.
Some scientific studies suggest that people with hair loss may have fewer blood vessels. But no one has really measured the relationship between blood vessel growth and hair growth, nor has anyone figured out the reason for the initial growth of scalp blood vessels.
To understand these questions, researchers compared two groups of mouse “models”: one was a normal mouse, and the other was a mouse programmed to produce a large amount of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a magical protein that can “summon” blood vessel growth. Compared with the control group of mice, VEGF enhanced mice grew hair rapidly and particularly densely in the first two weeks after birth, like a lush “little forest” on their heads.
The hair regeneration speed of VEGF enhanced mice is also astonishingly fast. Those 8-week-old VEGF mice with shaved beards not only grew hair faster, but also had a 30% increase in hair follicle diameter after 12 days of hair removal. In terms of total hair volume, it is about 70% thicker than the hair of wild-type mice. The diameter of blood vessels in the skin around hair follicles is also 40% larger than that of normal mice, indicating that VEGF mediated angiogenesis allows hair to grow quickly and densely.
Researchers believe that using minoxidil to dilate blood vessels and stimulate endothelial growth factor in blood vessels can not only deliver oxygen and nutrients to hair follicles, but also provide additional growth “assistance”.