Find a way to use scent to treat baldness

There are many potential solutions for hair loss, such as capsules or injections, and in a recent study, scientists have come up with a new approach: using the smell of sandalwood. to stimulate hair growth.

You can easily find the olfactory receptors that help sense odors in the nose, but experts now say they seem to find similar receptors in many other places on the body, especially in skin areas around hair follicles - where cells produce an olfactory receptor called OR2AT4 . This receptor has many different physiological functions, and one of them is wound healing .

Picture 1 of Find a way to use scent to treat baldness
The scientists expect that they can successfully create a drug that helps stimulate new hair growth from sandalwood.

Ralf Paus of the University of Manchester (UK) and his colleagues suggest that there is evidence that it is possible to create hair using molecular-scale tools, which play a role in patching on scalp areas. hurt. This makes scientists wonder whether stimulation of OR2AT4 helps to promote hair growth.

To test their ideas, the team immediately conducted experiments on scalp samples collected from volunteers, exposing them to the smell of synthetic sandalwood for 6 days.

The reason the synthetic sandalwood was chosen for the experiment was because its smell contained a special molecule with the ability to bind to the OR2AT4 receptor. The researchers found a 25-30% increase in the secretion of growth hormone in the scalp, which is responsible for promoting hair growth. Conversely, when trying to prevent OR2AT4 from binding to the scent, the hormone concentration decreased significantly.

The scent of synthetic sandalwood is now widely used in many cosmetics and perfumes and by changing the structure, scientists expect them to be able to successfully create a drug that helps stimulate growth. Completely new hair.

  1. Baldness: Causes and symptoms
  2. Scientists successfully developed bald anti-bald hat