Adenosine Stimulates Hair Growth and Thickens Hair in Women
Adenosine is a nucleoside naturally occurring in all cells of the human body. It plays an important role in biochemical processes such as energy transfer and signal transduction. In one small clinical study conducted a few years ago, adenosine was shown to thicken miniaturised hair of Japanese men affected by androgenetic alopecia. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study with 30 Japanese women suffering from female pattern hair loss has been conducted recently in order to investigate the efficacy and safety of adenosine-based hair loss therapy in women. Volunteers used either 0.75% adenosine lotion or a placebo, which were applied topically twice daily for twelve months. The efficacy was then evaluated by dermatologists, research investigators and by self-assessment. Phototrichograms were used to help with the evaluation. The study concluded that adenosine significantly improved the hair loss condition in women by stimulating hair growth and by thickening their hair shafts. No side effects were observed during the trial. Further independent studies on a larger scale will be needed to confirm the positive findings from this report. Adenosine is already commercially available in hair loss cures such as Adenogen manufactured by the Japanese cosmetics firm Shiseido and in several generic products such as Dermenodex, Spectral DNC and Nioxin.
Source:
Adenosine increases anagen hair growth and thick hairs in Japanese women with female pattern hair loss: a pilot, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
Oura H; Iino M; Nakazawa Y; Tajima M; Ideta R; Nakaya Y; Arase S; Kishimoto J
The Journal of dermatology, 2008 Dec;35(12):763-7