Follow-Up – Dr Cooley’s ISHRS ACell Presentation
One commenter to my post from a couple weeks ago asked about my recollection of the Jerry Cooley, M.D. presentation at the ISHRS meeting on the use of ACell and hair multiplication. The comment was: “The doc still has not addressed why in his previous post about Acell he said Dr. Cooley’s results are less than 50% growth while Dr. Cooley has maintained all along – and proved – that his results are actually 75% regrowth and rising as he refines his technique.”
I went back to my notes from that meeting. The following is the abstract published by Dr. Cooley: “ACell MatriStem MicroMatrix is an FDA approved agent for wound healing. Use in other fields has demonstrated benefits for healing injuries as an adjunct to surgery. The author shares anecdotal experience using this product over the past 18 months. Areas covered include the effects of MatriStem on strip harvest healing. FUE and punch harvest sites, standard FU grafts as well as its use with the so-called ‘autocloning’ technique in which plucked hair is used for grafting. Initial results are promising and hopefully continued research will help define the potential role of this agent in hair restoration.”
From my notes, Dr. Cooley discussed the variable results from his work with hair growth after the plucked procedure was done. He did mention that over the course of his work, the survival of plucked hairs increased. The 75% number made by the commenting individual may have reflected Dr. Cooley’s end survival, but my notes were not clear on this subject. Unfortunately, I could not find a written summary written by Dr. Cooley that discussed his study over a large number of patients. My memory of his discussion may not have been clear. So I called him.
Dr. Cooley suggested the number be anywhere between 50-80%, though he did also say, “I would be hesitant to claim the upper number at this time.” There is little doubt that even a 50% new hair success rate would be a terrific breakthrough. As we progress with our own double blind study and a statistically significant group of patients, the actual numbers should become evident.
Doctor,
If this technology is successful.. Will it help this with dupa and female pattern hair loss?
Thanks Doc for the response. I felt you were marginalizing the extent of Dr. Cooley’s research – and the breakthrough itself – at the time, but I see that this is now not the case. I do wish you luck with your own autocloning research.
Admittedly, I’m not too bright – can someone explain to me in layman’s terms what this procedure is/does? It sounds like hair is plucked form the back of the head and tranplanted 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?
Appreciate the info Doc! I sincerely hope this technology shall be applicable to all forms of hair-loss eyebrows, sideburns, etc… This truly is giving hope to many including myself. I think your a good man.
Hey Dr.,
For comparison sake, what’s the new hair success rate for an FUE hair transplant?
S,
What you do is that you pluck a tiny bit of a hair from the non-balding area and place this bit in the area where you’re thinnning. When the “magic powder” is applied, this bit will grow into a fully adult, thick hair. The plucked hair will also grow back, because you have only removed a small portion of it, leaving enough material for the hair to regenerate completely.
Thank you, Thomas! I didn’t realize there was a powder involved – very interesting…Let’s hope for the best!