Hair loss is down to a molecule you’ve never heard of

Losing your hair?  Blame it on a molecule you’ve probably never heard of.

The molecule, MCL-1, helps keep our hair on.  But lose it, and you lose your hair, say scientists at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

In mice experiments, the researchers discovered there’s a link between MCL-1 and p53, the daddy of all proteins that’s grandly called the ‘guardian of the genome’.  P53 proteins suppress cancer growth by regulating and triggering apoptosis, or cell death.

There’s a critical balance going on between the two proteins, and while it’s all early days, the researchers say that one could regenerate the other: in other words, harness p53 proteins to encourage more MCL-1 proteins, and hair starts regrowing. 

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