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Hair Loss News Archives
February 2002
SEI Develops New
Hair-Growth Substance that Directly Forms Hair-Growth Tissues
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (SEI) announced
today that it has successfully developed a new substance that induces hair
growth. Unlike conventional hair regrowth products that have indirect effect,
the new substance, hereinafter referred to as EPM, encourages cyclic hair growth
by directly inducing the formation of hair follicles (hair roots).
In future,
SEI will form business alliances with pharmaceutical and toiletry companies in
Japan and overseas to enhance commercialization of this new development. EPM is
the first biomedical substance SEI has developed.
Further focusing its research
efforts on morphogenesis of blood vessels and organs, SEI will continue to
develop more biomedical substances that trigger the organization of other
tissues.
SEI has long been conducting research on the organic
materials for wire covering. In the early-80s, focusing its attention to future
growth potential of the biotechnology market, SEI had started research on
biotechnology and materials.
After the discovery of a protein "epimorphin"
that have the ability to make the cells to form the tissue-specific structures (morphogenesis)
in 1992, SEI has been energetically carrying out research and development of
clarifying the morphogenic function and of application of epimorphin to
biomedicines.
Epimorphin is a protein that is made up of about 300 amino
acids linked together. It normally exists inside a cell, but once secreted
extracellulary, it encourages the cells of various organs, including the hair
follicle, to rearrange into their original structures.
However, it has long been
unknown which amino acid combination is critical for the tissue organization.
In the initial stage of research, efforts were focused on
the determination of optimum combination of amino acids that forms the follicles
and induces hair-growth.
SEI has established a screening method for efficient
evaluation of effective combinations and used this method to determine the
optimum amino acid combination for the follicle formation.
Artificially
reproducing and chemically modifying this optimum combination, the new substance
EPM was formulated.
EPM, which is made up of about ten amino acids, is small enough to permeate through human skin.
This means that it can be applied to the scalp as a hair regrowth product for external use.
To test the effect of EPM, SEI has prepared an EPM concentration of one-hundredth of commercially available hair growth tonic and applied this on the laboratory mice that have their furs shaven.
The test results verified that diluted EPM achieved the hair-regrowth
effect equivalent to or better than that of the conventional hair regrowth
product of normal concentration.
Among the safety tests required for petition on
manufacturing of drugs based on the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, SEI has already
completed the major animal tests.
SEI has filed various patent applications on
EPM and the screening method in and Japan and overseas.
SEI has appointed BioFrontier Partners, Inc. as its agent and will work toward commercialization of EPM as hair regrowth product through tie-ups with domestic and foreign pharmaceutical and toiletry companies.
Newly developed EPM forms the follicles and encourages
regrowth of hair. SEI sees that when EPM is further improved, the amino acid
combinations that induce formation of blood vessels and organs can be
determined.
SEI will focus its efforts on extraction and determination of the
combinations that have new functions and will carry on the development in the
field of regeneration medicine.