Nanotechnology is being used for everything from national security to keeping stains off khakis.

Danville's Luna Innovations has now announced the discovery of a nanomedicine that could help grow new hair follicles. Scientists at Luna nanoWorks made the discovery while working on an antioxidant, which could lead to treating a wide range of diseases.

"One of our new nanomedicine prototypes, after only two weeks of treatment, was found to increase the number of hair follicles fourfold in mice that are born genetically hairless," Robert Lenk, the president of Luna's nanoWorks division, said last week.

This work is in its early stages.

Those experimenting with the nanomedicine say that it's too soon to suggest that it become a cure for hair loss, but they note that scientists are considering these options.

"Our discovery suggests that there may be a new pathway to reversing hair-follicle atrophy, and that may one day lead to a new treatment for human hair loss," Lenk said. "What is surprising is that it is possible to reverse the process with a nanomedicine prototype.

"We are excited about the work we are doing, but you must remember what we have is early stage research, so we will comment further when we have sufficient data."

What Luna has done is experiment with hairless mice with a type of mutation that reduces hair follicles in them a few weeks after birth. The hair on the mice normally does not grow back because of the mutation.

Scientists say that they have identified the gene that is responsible for mutation in the mice, however, the biological processes that cause the follicle to atrophy are not well understood.

"What we have uncovered thus far is extremely exciting because it sheds new insights into the underlying processes responsible for keeping hair follicles healthy," Lenk said. "We know that hair follicles cycle between growth and atrophy naturally. These new results reveal that the balance can be tipped toward promoting follicle growth in hairless mice.

"Our hope is this discovery may eventually translate into a new class of medicines promoting hair growth in people who are balding."

Luna scientists are working with the staff of the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences to come up with a treatment for baldness. The aim of Luna's work is to help people who have medical conditions that cause hair loss and those with heredity hair loss.

"This is an example of how Luna's innovative business model can help to identify candidates for potential products that we hope will some day improve people's lives," said Kent Murphy, the chairman and CEO of Luna Innovations.

"The discovery that Luna's nanomedicine candidate can potentially promote hair growth, an unexpected result of other research being performed at Luna, indicates that hair follicle atrophy can be reversed. We believe this may be the beginning of a generation of nanomedicines aimed at changing outcomes in intractable diseases," Murphy said.