Electric Comb Regrows Nearly All Hair in Balding Mice Within a Month

A comb-shaped electronic device has regrown nearly all the lost hair in mice with a form of pattern baldness, according to ScienceAlert. The results are preliminary: the system, called Detangle, has so far been tested only in mice, and it is not known whether it would be safe or effective for people.

The work, led by researchers at Beihang University in Beijing, was published in the journal Nature Communications. The target is androgenetic alopecia, or pattern hair loss, which is estimated to affect over a billion people worldwide.

How the comb works

Detangle is a bioelectronic device shaped like a comb. Its teeth hold electrodes of different heights and modules loaded with drugs. The teeth produce pulsed electric fields, and the researchers say the difference in tooth length makes the field 2.63 times stronger than if the teeth sat in a row. They also report that the field reaches about 9 times deeper into hair follicle regions than conventional external application.

The comb is meant to help in two ways. The electrical pulses stimulate hair follicles directly. The shorter teeth also deliver therapeutic molecules deep into the skin through electroporation, a process that temporarily makes cell membranes more permeable.

The team paired the electrical stimulation with two experimental genetic treatments. One, a VEGFA plasmid, stimulates the growth of blood vessels around follicles. The other, SRD5A2 siRNA, suppresses a hormone that shrinks follicles.

The central numbers

The tests used male mice with testosterone-induced hair loss and measured regrowth on a shaved patch of the back over 28 days.

• About 1 percent: regrowth in untreated mice.
• About 40 percent: regrowth with electrical stimulation alone, a significant improvement over no treatment.
• About 50 and 70 percent: regrowth in mice given the drugs finasteride and minoxidil, respectively, both above stimulation alone.
• About 85 percent and about 90 percent: regrowth when stimulation was paired with SRD5A2 siRNA and VEGFA plasmid, respectively.
• About 97.85 percent: regrowth with the full system, combining stimulation with both experimental therapies.

What is behind the results

The strongest results came from combining the electrical field with the drug molecules rather than from electricity alone. Stimulation by itself did better than no treatment but fell short of the two established drugs the researchers used for comparison. The researchers write that the full approach speeds hair growth to nearly 100 percent within a month in the mouse model, beating conventional oral or external medications.

Why it matters

For people losing their hair, nothing changes yet. ScienceAlert described the study as a promising proof of concept, but said further research must show that the techniques are safe and effective in humans. Results in mice, particularly in a model where hair loss is induced with testosterone, do not guarantee the same outcome in people, and no human trials were described.

If later testing does support the findings, the work points toward a new kind of treatment that combines a simple handheld tool with targeted delivery of therapies into the skin. For now, it is an early-stage result that points to a direction for research, not a treatment available to patients.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by ScienceAlert

Cover photo: Prasan Shrestha / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped