Is PRP for hair loss unsuitable for someone with an autoimmune issue?

Question

I'm interested in PRP for hair loss. (52yo, female.) A friend mentioned that her dr said that PRP is unsuitable for people with autoimmune issues because (a) an autoimmune issue means that your body produces antibodies to your own cells, and (b) PRP injections contains a high concentration of those antibodies. But my understanding is that PRP is often used for autoimmune-related issues -- e.g., alopecia areata, and also for joints damaged by rheumatoid arthritis, etc. Is her doctor correct?

Jason Emer, MD · Answer

You need a formal evaluation to see what type of hair loss you may have. it can be done for certain autoimmune conditions. when you have hairless its best to do a full hormonal workup for internal optimization plus scalp biopsies or scrapings to rule out any stress related, inflammatory, autoimmune or infectious causes of hair loss. In general most people with early hair loss have telogen (stress related) and/or androgenetic (normal aging) and both can be treated with in office treatments like steroid injections, PRP/acell, Exosomes and at home treatments like oral medications, oral vitamins like Viviscal, topical exfoliating sprays like Restorsea, and weekly growth factors like anteagemd. See an expert for an evaluation. If hair loss is significant it may requires hair transplant (follicular unit translation).

Jeff Donovan, MD, PhD · Answer

Both are a bit correct. The longer answer is we don’t know because long term studies have not been done. There are 500 types of autoimmune diseases of the human body so we would need to conduct 500 really well designed and well conducted long term studies to follow what happens to that autoimmune disease in patient who receive PRP. Not only what happens after 4 months but what happens after 4 years and 14 years. So far the number of good long terms studies of this length is sitting at a total of zero. It sure seems like it is safe and even helpful for some of these scalp autoimmune diseases (like the ones you mentioned). The studies are short in their duration. There is much we don’t know and so it’s important for patients to understand that.

Is PRP for hair loss unsuitable for someone with an autoimmune issue?

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