If you're bothered by baldness or grieving over gray hair, maybe you need a dose of some well-placed genes.
Scientists say they have taken a first step toward treating baldness and gray hair by implanting genes, the high-tech approach now being studied for use against a variety of fatal diseases.When genes were enclosed in tiny bubbles of fat and spread on shaved mouse skin, they entered the skin's microscopic hair factories and activated, scientists report.
The genes were not intended to make the mice grow new hair. They were multiple copies of a gene chosen only because its activity could be easily detected in the skin.
But demonstrating that genes can be sucessfully delivered to the hair factories, called follicles, is "truly a beginning," says researcher Robert Hoffman.
"We hope we've opened the field of gene therapy for the hair follicle," he said. For "all those poor men, including me, who have male pattern baldness, and the ladies as well, we hope we can start reactivating their follicles."