A potential new cure for baldness has been discovered using a drug originally intended to treat osteoporosis.
Enhanced hair growth is a side-effect of a different drug, cyclosporine A, used to treat autoimmune diseases.
And researchers found it also inhibited a protein, SFRP1, that blocks a molecular pathway, WNT, vital for the growth of many tissues, including hair.
The new cure uses another drug, Way-316606, that was designed to inhibit SFRP1 as treatment for osteoporosis.
Project leader Dr Nathan Hawkshaw, from the University of Manchester, said it could "make a real difference to people who suffer from hair loss".
Only two drugs are currently available to treat balding (androgenetic alopecia), they are minoxidil, for men and women and finasteride, for men only.
Neither is available on the NHS and both have side-effects and are not always very effective, so patients often resort to hair transplantation surgery instead.
The research, published in PLOS Biology, was done in a lab, with samples containing scalp hair follicles from more than 40 male hair-transplant patients.
According to Dr Hawkshaw a clinical trial would be needed to see if the treatment was effective and safe in people.
Hair loss is a daily occurrence and generally nothing to worry about. Some types are temporary and some are permanent, reports BBC.
You should see a doctor because of sudden hair loss, developing bald patches, losing hair in clumps, head itching and burning, worry about hair loss, according to NHS Choices source.
