One of my friends is doing a proof of concept study - he underwent a transplant (FUE, I think) and then had half of his scalp receive a VEGF gene therapy, with the other half receiving placebo. VEGF promotes vascular growth, and the hope is that it improves the results of the hair transplant. It was only a month or so ago so no results yet, but I’m thinking about doing a similar study if his works out, and I’m wondering what suggestions people have on the experimental protocol… what to measure besides just follicle density … and what other ways to improve the outcome, e.g. PRP.
Study write up: VEGF Gene Therapy for Hair Loss, Tested on Half of our CEO's Scalp — Unlimited Bio
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQnoKtRBIQs
Happy to share an update on this VEGF experiment.
Results (treated vs placebo side):
- Endpoint averages across both pairs: 439 vs 365 hairs/cm² (+20%), anagen 62% vs 50%
- Temporal-parietal: density +132 vs +58 hairs/cm²; anagen 64→76% vs 69→60%. Most of the extra hairs were fine, and mean diameter didn’t move
- Occipital transition zone: mean shaft diameter 33→37 µm vs 33→30 µm (+7 µm between-side difference); density rose a lot on both sides
Caveats: n=1. It’s an add-on comparison on top of an already aggressive protocol, not a head-to-head with minoxidil. The terminal-hair diameter threshold changed between the two assessments, so all terminal/vellus numbers are soft. Density nearly tripled on both occipital sites, which may be measurement variability. Transplanted regions were uninterpretable at this timepoint. No adverse events are reported in the writeup.
I’ll follow up again once the transplanted region has had time to develop a bit further.