Male-pattern baldness found rooted in stem cells

According to a new study at the University of Pennsylvania, an inability of stem cells in the scalp to develop into the type of cells that make hair follicles may be an underlying cause of male-pattern baldness.

Scientists say in people who are bald, hair follicles have shrunken and become microscopic. Thay long thought that bald people also had a depletion of hair follicle stem cells, which are necessary to grow hair.

But the new study shows that bald people have the same number of stem cells as those with hair. So if scientists could coax the stem cells into producing more hair follicle progenitor cells, then it would be possible to generate bigger hair follicles that could grow hair