Angiogenesis: in Sci. Am. and in human trials in Canada now

kcar27 · Oct 24, 2003

Hi Folks,

Like me, you all may be in the dark about the progress of an angiogenesis treatment for male pattern hair loss; still, after looking at the topics in this section of the forum, I thought I'd look for your ideas. As the subject line notes, this therapeutic approach has been discussed in Scientific American and is currently in human trials being conducted by QLT, inc in Canada. Their web site--a bit uninformative really--is http://www.qlt-pdt.com .

From what I remember of the June 2001 article on regulating hair growth in Scientific American, one of the proposed main avenues for treating male pattern hair loss (MPHL) was the promotion of angiogenesis, the creation of new blood vessels, in the scalp. One of the links in the chain of events leading to MPHL is the decreased flow of blood to the scalp. (Correct me if I'm wrong about the date of this article about hirsutism and various types of alopecia, but I believe it was in that time frame...)

I didn't think too much of this avenue of treatment at the time, until I saw another article in Scientific American about the use of synthetic porphyrins as photosensitizers for various diseases--including androgenetica alopecia, aka MPHL. By photosensitizing the scalp (that is, making it more sensitive to light, researchers theoretically can use light of certain wavelengths to penetrate the scalp and promote the growth or revitalization of blood vessels. I gather the Laser Comb I see advertized on this and similar sites also claims to stimulate blood flow--but the treatment I read about in Scientific American seems far more powerful and scientifically validated.

The link to the article on the Web is here

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articl ... DF&catID=2

You may have to register to access the article, but it seems to be there in full. I believe it appeared in the Jan. 2003 print version of Scientific American. A fascinating piece: you learn that porphyrins may have caused people to develop the disease porphyria (the madness of King George III) and take on vampirish features, and that porphyrins can be used to destroy AND create blood vessels. QLT has porphyrins in clinical use today for fighting macular degeneration, the buildup of damaged blood vessels in the eye that leads to gradual blindness.

You can also do a search at Google for the porphyrin that the company QLT has designed and is testing for alopecia androgenetica (MPHL) as well as benign prostatic hypertrophism; the name of the porphyrin is QLT0074. Apparently QLT is conducting phase II trials of QLT0074 on humans in Canada. Anybody have further news? This seems like a very promising treatment for our common problem...

Guest · Oct 25, 2003

This may explain why folligen, NANO products, and tricomin appear to work. Related to your article.

Miniaturization of hair follicles and diminution of blood supply

The combination of various hormones, diseases, or injuries, and immune effects progressively "miniaturizes" the involved hair follicle. The smaller follicle produces a smaller, thinner hair and has a progressively shorter growth cycle. The hair becomes shorter and finer with each hair cycle until it finally becomes "peach-fuzz". Thus, pattern loss is actually more a problem of replacement than of loss.

A major cause of this miniaturization appears to due to the development of striking changes in capillaries surrounding the hair follicles. Comprehensive surveys of the male scalp from birth to senescence find that very significant changes in the structure of the blood vessels of the scalp. The number of the blood capillary loops supplying the hair follicle is greatly diminished. The inadequate subepidermal circulation that can develop as males age does not provide a rich nutrition for the follicle. Strong hair growth requires a large flow of nutrients such as such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids so that the follicle can actively synthesize new hair.

Blood flow impairments to the follicle, and their reversal, may explain why the administration of copper peptides (such as Folligen and Tricomin) to the scalp increase hair growth and increase the size of hair shafts. It has long been known that certain copper-peptide complexes strongly stimulate angiogenesis or new blood vessel formation. In laboratory hair-growth models using mice, the copper-peptides in Folligen or tricomin increase hair follicle volume by 5 to 8-fold. It is likely that these copper-peptides also increase the volume of human hair follicles, although an increase is likely to be smaller than the change in mice. The increase in hair follicle size and the rate of hair growth caused by the administration of copper-peptides may be due to their causing blood flow changes that provide adequate nutrients to the follicle for strong hair growth. Folligen can be found at

kcar27 · Oct 25, 2003

Why haven't Folligen and Tricomin been FDA-approved?

Hi Bruce Lee,

Thanks for your response to my posting about angiogenesis. I've heard about the two products that you've mentioned--Folligen and Tricomin--but to the best of my knowledge they have not been approved by the FDA. In fact, I believe that Tricomin was studied in human trials, but that the trials stopped after researchers found insufficient results.

Am I wrong about this? I'm not necessarily disputing your statements about the effects of copper peptide complexes on blood vessel growth in hair-bearing tissue, but it strikes me that if these substances had such a strong result as you mentioned, the companies selling these products would push for FDA approval, regardless of the cost.

I am always skeptical of companies who claim that yes, by golly, our product combats hair loss but it's too expensive or politically charged for us to seek FDA approval. Getting that approval opens your product up to a much larger market, which will pay for the costs of human trials rather quickly. There is just too much quackery and pseudo-science out there: valid companies should seek FDA approval for their products.

So where do Folligen and Tricomin stand in terms of FDA approval? Perhaps one or both products, when used in conjunction with QLT's QLT0074 photodynamic angiogenesis therapy, will provide even better results than a stand-alone photodynamic angiogenesis approach...

Guest · Oct 25, 2003

Re: Why haven't Folligen and Tricomin been FDA-approved?

kcar27 said:
Hi Bruce Lee,

Thanks for your response to my posting about angiogenesis. I've heard about the two products that you've mentioned--Folligen and Tricomin--but to the best of my knowledge they have not been approved by the FDA. In fact, I believe that Tricomin was studied in human trials, but that the trials stopped after researchers found insufficient results.

Am I wrong about this? I'm not necessarily disputing your statements about the effects of copper peptide complexes on blood vessel growth in hair-bearing tissue, but it strikes me that if these substances had such a strong result as you mentioned, the companies selling these products would push for FDA approval, regardless of the cost.

I am always skeptical of companies who claim that yes, by golly, our product combats hair loss but it's too expensive or politically charged for us to seek FDA approval. Getting that approval opens your product up to a much larger market, which will pay for the costs of human trials rather quickly. There is just too much quackery and pseudo-science out there: valid companies should seek FDA approval for their products.

So where do Folligen and Tricomin stand in terms of FDA approval? Perhaps one or both products, when used in conjunction with QLT's QLT0074 photodynamic angiogenesis therapy, will provide even better results than a stand-alone photodynamic angiogenesis approach...

To my knowledge, Trocomin passed phase 2 trials successfully but did not have the 85M necessary to do the next phase. Small company that pro-cyte.

Dr. Pickard sold pro cyte and then founded Skin Biology, which makes and sells folligen.

I know he publishes regularly and he does respond to emails. If you are interested, jot him an email and he can tell you if there is more research on copper peptides and angiogenesis. Also, Bryan just posted some research on copper peptides here about 3 days ago.

For the record, I have used folligen for years and believe it is good stuff. Never used Tricomin, no opinion.