Is the cure for baldness in sight?

A CURE for baldness could be on the horizon thanks to research into the effects of stress.

Harvard scientists found a hormone mice release when stressed suppresses the production of a protein which promotes hair growth.

When the mice were injected with the protein, called GAS6, it reinitiated hair growth. And if the stress hormone corticosterone was reduced, the animals sprouted three times as many hairs.

The results, in the Nature journal, have not yet been proven in humans but researchers believe the mechanism could be similar.

The US team removed the mice’s glands which make corticosterone and found the follicles engaged in hair growth three times as often.

Professor Rui Yi, of Chicago’s Northwestern University, who was not part of the study, said: ‘[It could be] possible to combat the negative impact of chronic stress on our hair... by adding some GAS6.’