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Platelet-rich plasma did not significantly improve female androgenetic alopecia

There was no significant improvement in hair mass index or hair count in women with female androgenic alopecia treated with platelet-rich plasma when compared with placebo; however, surveyed patients reported improvement with the treatment, according to recently published study results.

Researchers studied 26 women with Ludwig type II female androgenetic alopecia. Fifteen were randomly assigned to treatment and 11 were assigned to placebo. Patients in the treatment arm received nonactivated (no thrombin added) Angel manufactured platelet rich plasma (PRP) from the patient’s blood just before injection with the Angel PRP system (Cytromedix), while the placebo group received normal saline scalp injection.

Hair count, hair mass index and patient survey responses were study endpoints.

Patients were examined every 4 weeks, with final data collected at 26 weeks after treatment. The 2-tailed independent t-test indicated no statistically significant difference between the cohorts in hair count or hair mass.

Survey results found that 13.3% of patients in the treatment cohort observed substantial improvement in hair loss, rate of hair loss, hair thickness and ease of managing and styling hair, compared with 0% in the placebo cohort. More than a quarter (26.7%) of patients in the treatment group reported their hair felt courser or heavier after treatment, compared with 18.2% in the placebo cohort.

“Although the results of this pilot study with a small number of patients failed to demonstrate the efficacy of PRP, some of its findings suggest that PRP, or maybe scalp needling therapy, may have a promise in the treatment of female androgenetic alopecia,” the researchers wrote. “The positive treatment results obtained from both groups suggest that scalp needling delivers enough PRP growth factors to scalp to stimulate hair growth.” – by Bruce Thiel

Disclosure: Cytomedix provided the Angel PRP and all soft goods for making the plasma rich protein. The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.