拿什么拯救90后的发际线？别急，科学家找到办法啦

时光飞逝，不管你相不相信，80后如今已经迈入中老年群体。

The bureau, in Liangshan county, has advertised for "seniors" to play in a soccer tournament. Anyone age 35 or over may apply.
凉山县体育局发布了一则号召“中老年人”参加足球比赛的通知，35岁及以上者均符合条件。

Don't giggle if you're a part of the post-90s generation! There's a good chance that you too might soon have a midlife crisis and start going bald.
如果你是90后，别忙着幸灾乐祸！很有可能你很快也会迎来中年危机，而一切就从秃顶开始。

近日，“第一批90后已经秃了”的话题登上微博热搜。如今，秃头不再是中年大叔们的专属哀伤，90后也悄悄打响了“发际线保卫战”。

忧伤的90后网友表示，还没脱单，就开始脱发了。

不过，最近一群韩国科学家表示，他们或许找到了解决脱发烦恼的方法。

今天你脱发了吗？

如果你不确定自己是正常掉发，还是有脱发迹象，可以对照下面的描述：

For men, thinning hair usually starts with either a receding hairline or thinning at the crown of the head.
对男性来说，头发变少通常始于发际线后退或头顶的头发变稀疏。

Women begin to notice thinning hair around their part, as it gradually becomes wider.
女性则会先注意到分界线的头发越来越少，分界线越来越宽。

They may also notice that when their hair is pulled back they are able to see more of the scalp than before.
还有，把头发往后梳时，露出的脑门越来越多。

头发，你为何离我而去

A survey once found that about 200 million people suffer from some sort of hair loss in China.
一项调查显示，中国约有2亿人饱受脱发困扰。

看着自己日渐明显的“地中海”，你可能会问：我的头发为啥越来越少。

脱发的原因因人而异，通常和饮食、压力、遗传有关……其中，遗传性脱发占比不少。

Hair loss can be hereditary. Hereditary hair loss is called androgenetic alopecia, or for males, male pattern baldness, and for females, female pattern baldness.
脱发有可能是遗传性的。遗传性脱发又称为雄激素源性脱发，分为男性雄性脱和女性雄性脱。

这种脱发男女表现形式还不一样，男性一般从发际线往后脱，女性则是弥散性地脱。

Androgenetic alopecia occurs when a hair follicle sheds, and the hair that replaces it is thinner and finer than what was there previously. The hair follicles continue to shrink and eventually hair stops growing altogether.
遗传性脱发的过程是毛囊脱落，新长出的头发比之前更细软，毛囊逐渐萎缩，最终头发停止生长。

It can be passed down from either the mother's or father's genes – but is more likely to occur if both parents have this issue.
父母的脱发基因都可能遗传给下一代，如果父母双方都脱发，下一代脱发的可能性更高。

拿什么拯救你，我的发际线！？

脱发的同学为了拯救自己的发际线，可谓尝试了各种办法，比如生姜洗发粉、防脱洗发水、生发梳，但效果往往一般。

那么脱发真的没得救了？最近一群韩国科学家表示，他们或许找到了解决脱发烦恼的方法。

Led by professor Choi Kang-yeol of Yonsei University, a team of researchers discovered a protein responsible for hair loss in androgenetic alopecia, also known as pattern baldness - the most common type of hair loss in both men and women.
由延世大学教授崔康烈（音译）带领的研究团队发现了一种导致雄激素源性脱发（又称斑秃）的蛋白质。雄激素源性脱发是男性和女性最常见的脱发类型。

崔康烈教授表示：

“We have found a protein that controls the hair growth and developed a new substance that promotes hair regeneration by controlling the function of the protein. We expect that the newly developed substance will contribute to the development of a drug that not only treats hair loss but also regenerate damaged skin tissues.”
“我们发现了一种可以控制头发生长的蛋白质，并研发了一种新物质，通过控制蛋白质的功能来促进毛发再生。我们认为，这种新研发的物质将有助于研制一种能够治疗脱发，且能促进受损皮肤组织再生的药物。”

科学家发现当一种叫做CXXC5的蛋白质与散乱蛋白结合时，它们会阻遏Wnt (一种复杂的蛋白质作用网络，与毛发再生和伤口愈合有关) 信号通路，从而影响毛囊生长及再生秩序。

A new biomaterial developed by the team interferes with this binding process. It's called PTD-DBM, and when applied to the bare skin of bald mice for 28 days, new follicles developed.
为了干扰这种结合过程，研究人员研制出一种名为PTD-PBD的生物材料，并将这种物质涂在无毛白鼠皮肤上，持续28天后，白鼠长出了新的毛囊。

而根据2007年的一项研究，在小鼠实验中，某些情况下，直径超过5毫米的伤口在愈合时会产生新的毛囊。

The strongest result that Kang-yeol's team saw was after combining wound-induced hair neogenesis with PTD-PBM and valproic acid, usually used to treat seizures, bipolar, schizophrenia and migraines. In this instance it was used topically to activate the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.
崔康烈的研究团队发现，将创伤诱发毛发再生，PTD-PBD和丙戊酸结合起来，取得的效果最明显。丙戊酸通常用于治疗癫痫、双向情感障碍、精神分裂和偏头痛，在这个实验里用来激活Wnt信号通路。

So there's a threefold action. The wounds induce the generation of follicles; the valproic acid stimulates the cell pathway linked to the development of follicles; and the PTD-PBD inhibits prevents CXXC5 from interfering with the follicular development process.
创伤诱发毛囊再生、丙戊酸刺激与毛囊生长有关的细胞通路、PTD-PBD抑制剂阻止CXXC5干扰毛囊生长的过程，这三者结合产生了三重作用。

New treatments often take time to develop, not least because they need to go through clinical trials to determine their safety - and, as we know, using mouse models to study how well things might respond in humans doesn't always work.
新的治疗方法通常需要很长一段研发时间，尤其是需要通过临床实验来确定其安全性。毕竟，以实验小鼠代替人类来研究反应效果并不总是奏效。

Nevertheless, the team's research is progressing apace. They're currently testing their new substance on animals to determine whether it's toxic, before proceeding to human trials.
不过，研究团队进展迅速。他们目前正在动物身上测试这种新物质，以确定是否有毒，然后再考虑进行人体试验。

如果这个方法真的可行，那简直就是秃头人士的福音啊！

英文来源：sciencealert.com 中国日报双语新闻（Chinadaily_Mobile）ChinaDaily英文微信（RealTimeChina）
编辑：董静 焦洁 左卓 祝兴媛
审校：丹妮