Microneedling and Its Use in Hair Loss Disorders: A Systematic Review

This study demonstrated that PRP treatment improved hair metrics in androgenetic alopecia, with the dermapen method proving more effective than the point-by-point technique for specific hair growth indicators.

This study found that microneedling monotherapy significantly increased hair count more than topical minoxidil in androgenetic alopecia, with combination therapy of microneedling and minoxidil being even more effective. Further research is needed to evaluate microneedling's safety and efficacy as a monotherapy.

This study found that both intradermal injection and derma roller techniques for QR678Neo® hair regrowth therapy improved androgenetic alopecia symptoms, with intradermal injections showing non-significantly better video-microscopic outcomes but more pain and erythema associated with derma rollers.

This review proposes that inconsistent findings in androgenic alopecia research are due to variable biopsy location, hair diameter diversity, and hair follicle miniaturization, and suggests ways to improve study methods.

The researchers reported that combining platelet-rich plasma with minoxidil showed the most improvement in androgenetic alopecia compared to other treatment groups, but also had more pain as a side effect.

This study found that adding platelet-rich plasma with microneedling to conventional medical treatment significantly increased hair density and diameter in androgenetic alopecia patients compared to medical treatment alone.

Scalp micro-wounding helps promote hair growth in female pattern hair loss.

In this study, microneedling with a depth of 0.6 mm, alongside minoxidil, significantly improved hair count and thickness in patients with androgenetic alopecia compared to minoxidil alone, and was more beneficial than a 1.2 mm depth.

This study found that intralesional minoxidil alone has limited efficacy for non-severe patchy alopecia areata, though it may accelerate hair regrowth compared to spontaneous recovery.

In this study, a home-use microneedle device combined with 5% minoxidil showed potential for enhancing hair growth in pattern hair loss over six months, although the observed improvements in hair count and patient assessments were not statistically significant compared to other treatments.

This study found that combining microneedling with 5% minoxidil improved hair growth in Chinese men with androgenetic alopecia, possibly through activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

This study found that PRP was effective for treating alopecia areata with similar improvement across groups, while topical delivery via fractional CO2 laser or microneedling reduced injection pain.

This study found that both microneedling and microneedling with platelet-rich plasma improved hair thickness and density in male pattern alopecia, but no additional benefit was observed with the addition of platelet-rich plasma.

This study suggests that combining microneedling with ALA-photodynamic therapy may be a promising treatment option for moderate to severe alopecia areata, achieving significant hair regrowth in some patients.

This study found that microneedling improved hair density and thickness with minimal side effects in patients with androgenetic alopecia and telogen effluvium.

This study found that combining fractional radiofrequency microneedling with 5% topical minoxidil improved hair count and thickness more than minoxidil alone in Chinese men with male pattern hair loss.

This study found that combining microneedling with topical minoxidil was more effective than minoxidil alone in increasing hair count and improving patient satisfaction for men with androgenetic alopecia, though the cosmetic impact was not significant.

This study found that combining microneedle treatments with 5% minoxidil topical solution led to the greatest increase in hair density among Chinese men with androgenetic alopecia.

This review highlights microneedling's promise as an adjuvant therapy for enhanced drug delivery in dermatology, especially for conditions like atrophic scars and pigmentation disorders, though its efficacy for vitiligo is limited.

This review noted that alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease impacting hair follicles and offered insights into its complex pathogenesis involving immune responses, while highlighting ongoing research into new treatments such as Janus kinase inhibitors and other immunomodulatory drugs.

This review examines recent advances in understanding the pathophysiology and molecular mechanisms of androgenetic alopecia, highlighting two major genetic risk loci, but does not report new clinical findings.

This study found that combining microneedling with PRP and topical minoxidil (5%) significantly improved hair growth in men with androgenetic alopecia compared to using minoxidil alone.

This study found that micro-needling with cosmeceuticals or platelet-rich plasma significantly improved wrinkles, skin laxity, scar softening, and hair growth over 12 months, with minimal side effects, and that the best results occur with pigment and platelet massaging between 5 to 30 minutes post-treatment.

This study found that repeated microneedle stimulation in mice promoted hair growth and increased the expression of hair-growth-related genes, suggesting potential therapeutic uses for alopecia.

The paper suggests improving diagnosis and treatment of telogen effluvium but does not recommend a new classification system.

This study suggests that a hair follicle enzyme assay may predict response to minoxidil treatment for androgenetic alopecia with high sensitivity and specificity in a preliminary analysis.

This study found that adding microneedling to minoxidil treatment significantly improved hair growth in men with androgenetic alopecia compared to minoxidil alone across all assessed measures.

This pilot study suggests that using growth factors followed by microneedle therapy may benefit women with female pattern hair loss.

This study measured the lengths and depths of different portions of occipital scalp hair follicles and suggested cutting below 1 mm for hair regeneration procedures to avoid damaging the bulge zone.

This study found that photodynamic therapy with methyl 5-aminolevulinic acid was ineffective for treating alopecia totalis, even with microneedle rolling to enhance drug delivery.

In this study, treatment with finasteride 1 mg/day for five years significantly reduced the likelihood of further visible hair loss in men with androgenetic alopecia compared to placebo.

Hair follicles can regrow in wounded adult mouse skin using a process like embryo development.

This study found that testosterone and 5α-dihydrotestosterone induced apoptosis in dermal papilla cells from nonbalding scalp regions, suggesting a high androgen stimulus can trigger cell death related to androgenetic alopecia.

This study found that the prevalence of androgenetic alopecia increases with age among both men and women in Maryborough, Australia, with 57% of women and 73.5% of men aged 80 and over affected.

TGF-β1 from dermal papilla cells suppresses hair growth, and targeting it may help treat androgenetic alopecia.

In this study, androgen did not affect keratinocyte growth in coculture with androgenetic alopecia-derived dermal papilla cells, but did significantly suppress keratinocyte growth when androgen receptor was overexpressed in the papilla cells.