Category: ACell

Admittedly, I’m not too bright – It sounds like hair is plucked form the back of the head and transplanted in the scalp? Then the plucked hair grows back? Does this mean there would be no need to cut a strip from the back of the head and there would be an unlimited donor supply?

Actually, your conclusion is right on. If this process becomes a standard treatment for hair loss, then the need for a traditional transplant would not be needed as long as you’re willing to go through a procedure that involves plucking many hairs and have them placed into another part of the scalp, one hair at a time. It takes patience, but the hope is that the donor supply is unlimited. This assumes, of course, that the hair that grows from the original plucked hair will regrow and cycle as it did when it was in the donor supply (where the plucked hair came from).

So that’s what we’re referring to when we mention the ACell product and auto-cloning. There are a lot of variables still unknown, which is why we’re going to be studying it.

Can you explain how these ACell hair transplant procedures most likely will be performed?

In my mind, the strip option would be leave a scare too big for the ACell’s MatriStem product to heal/regenerate with out stitches , and If you take a strip of skin out, and stitch it together, there will not be alot of room for regenerating. A standard small FUE scar would be less time efficient and more costly for the customer. I guess, if donor supply is becoming unlimited, customers will demand higher density,more coverage and less conservative hairlines, which would make for more “mega session” type surgeries. As a 24 yr nw3 stable due to proscar, hair transplants never seemed like an option for me, just because of available donor hair – future balding, as I am pretty sure I will end up at Nw6 or 7 if science doesn’t beat genetics.

So If ACell’s MatriStem products turns out to be the standard, do you think we will go back to the old school butchering plug extractions? Since the sessions will be longer and more of them as well (I guess clients will ask for masterplans to have 10,000-20,000 or even 30,000 grafts! Instead of 3,000 – 7,000). And with the healing more forgiving, Would the ACell’s MatriStem product allow the surgeon to butcher the back of clients heads?

Your thoughts on the subject would be very interesting to read.

This is still a very early stage of trials and development. New ways of doing old things will arise. If the new technology works as planned, it will certainly not be like the old days of the bulky hair plugs. It should not produce scarring, as there is no surgery here.

I’d prefer to not get into too much detail here at this time, so please follow our announcements to come. You can see all of our recent posts on this subject in the new ACell category.

I want to respond to some questions and comments I’ve received about our previous post about the ACell study we’re starting. The presentation at the ISHRS meeting was clear that the use of the ACell matrix with plucked hairs can stimulate growth. The process of doing this may not be as simple as it appears to be for many physicians.

First of all, the plucked hairs are usually a single hair with minimal tissue to protect it from harm when they are handled and/or exposed to the air during the transfer process. The surgeons who offer this have to be skilled to manage one-hair grafts without killing them. The application of the ACell Matrix has may nuances associated with it, so the doctors who “experiment” with this technique must build a process that works over and over again. It is also important to understand that the newly formed follicles will contain tissue from the donor area (the plucked hair) and tissue from the recipient area (the part of the follicle induced by the hair/ACell/tissue interaction). Since some of the follicle is derived the recipient area, we can’t be sure that it will cycle as a normal hair or even be totally permanent.

Over the years we have developed many processes that have led to many of today’s standards in hair transplantation, such as FUE, FUT, megasessions, and dense packing. We have consistently published our work in peer reviewed medical journals and have brought science to the world of clinical hair transplantation, advancing the standard of care over and over again. Our team (Dr. Jae Pak and myself in LA, Dr. Robert Bernstein and Dr. Eric Schweiger in NY) have put our heads together to build a process that, we believe, will afford our patients the best opportunity to benefit from the hair multiplication process and help the industry command the process better and with more certainty.

We are not of the belief that what we are doing with regard to hair multiplication is for everyone, or that everyone should rush into the process before the results of our work (and that of others) are completed. For select patients who are interested in participating in clinical trials or being treated outside the studies at this time, we would be happy to evaluate you to discuss this during a consultation. Remember, this process may not be for everyone at this time.