The new growth in hair loss research
脫髮研究的新進展
Has there ever been more pressure to have a full and luscious head of hair? With such anxieties magnified by the digital world, it's little wonder that the impact of male and female pattern baldness has been increasingly linked to various mental health conditions.
擁有一頭賞心悅目的濃密頭髮的壓力，比以往任何時候都更大了。在數字化世界裡，這種焦慮被一再放大，這樣一來，男性和女性型脫髮帶來的影響愈發與各種心理健康問題聯繫在一起，也就不足為奇了。
But there is increasing hope for those experiencing hair loss, as while we re no closer to finding a way to prevent balding happening in the first place,scientists are developing increasingly novel and ingenious ways to either replace or regenerate the lost hair.
不過，那些飽受脫髮之苦的人也開始看到更多希望的曙光。雖然我們在預防禿頂的道路上仍一籌莫展，但科學家們正在研製愈加新穎和別出心裁的方法，來為脫髮者植髮或者生髮。
With no drug to prevent your hair from falling out,cosmetic surgery has looked to fill the void. Over the past two decades hair transplants一which take hair follicles from DHT-resistant“donor areas at the back and sides of the scalp and relocate them to cover up bald patches - have offered new hope for hair loss sufferers.
由於目前並沒有藥物能夠預防脫髮，整形手術一直致力於填補這一-空白。在過去20年間，植髮技術為許多脫髮患者帶來了新的希望。這種技術會從頭皮後側和兩側的抗DHT的“供體區”提取毛囊，並將其移植覆蓋到脫髮區域。
Instead of relying on donor hair, the way forward could be to use patient stem cells to grow whole hair follicles completely from scratch in the lab.These follicles could then be grown in unlimited quantities, and grafted on to the scalp.
除了依靠可供移植的頭髮外，未來的發展方向可能會是利用患者本人的幹細胞，在實驗室裡從無到有培養出完整的毛囊。這些毛囊將能被無限量複製並移植到頭皮上。
In the future, 3D printing could even help do this on a large scale. At Columbia University in New York,Angela Christiano is working on creating“ hair farms”using a grid of 3D-printed plastic moulds which mimic the exact shape of hair follicles .Growing them in an artificial, hair-like environment helps stimulate them to make a hair, but scientists still have to solve some aesthetic challenges.
在未來，3D打印都將可能幫助人們大規模實現這一目標。在紐約哥倫比亞大學，安吉拉.克瑞斯蒂亞諾正在研究利用一種3D打印出來的、精確模仿毛囊形狀的塑料模具網格來打造“生髮農場”。在人造的“擬頭髮”環境中培養毛囊，有助於刺激它們長出頭髮，但是科學家們仍然需要解決一些美觀和造型上的挑戰。
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