Stages of regrowth in bald mice once the 'antagonist' compound
is administered.: UCLA/VA I feel like I'm writing headlines for
one of the shocker tabloids, but the above lead just happens to
be very real and very significant to bald humans. Scientists at
the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the
Veterans Administration (VA) did discover a chemical compound
that caused hair regrowth in mice with alopecia, but they were
testing the compound on the mouse digestive system.
Specifically, the researchers were studying how stress affects
digestion, as it does in irritable bowel syndrome, for example.
Working with genetically engineered mice which overproduced a
stress hormone called corticotrophin-releasing factor or CRF. As
the mice age, it so happens, CRF also causes loss of fur, much
the same way that stress can cause baldness in humans. The focus
of the study was to test the effectiveness of an 'antagonist'
compound called astressin-B, which blocks the effects of CRF, to
see if it would reverse th