時光飛逝，不管你相不相信，80后如今已經邁入中老年群體。

The bureau, in Liangshan county, has advertised for "seniors" to play in a soccer tournament. Anyone age 35 or over may apply.
涼山縣體育局發布了一則號召“中老年人”參加足球比賽的通知，35歲及以上者均符合條件。

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，別忙著幸災樂禍！很有可能你很快也會迎來中年危機，而一切就從禿頂開始。

近日，“第一批90后已經禿了”的話題登上微博熱搜。如今，禿頭不再是中年大叔們的專屬哀傷，90后也悄悄打響了“發際線保衛戰”。

憂傷的90后網友表示，還沒脫單，就開始脫發了。

不過，最近一群韓國科學家表示，他們或許找到了解決脫發煩惱的方法。

今天你脫發了嗎？

如果你不確定自己是正常掉發，還是有脫發跡象，可以對照下面的描述：

For men, thinning hair usually starts with either a receding hairline or thinning at the crown of the head.
對男性來說，頭發變少通常始于發際線后退或頭頂的頭發變稀疏。

Women begin to notice thinning hair around their part, as it gradually becomes wider.
女性則會先注意到分界線的頭發越來越少，分界線越來越寬。

They may also notice that when their hair is pulled back they are able to see more of the scalp than before.
還有，把頭發往后梳時，露出的腦門越來越多。

頭發，你為何離我而去

A survey once found that about 200 million people suffer from some sort of hair loss in China.
一項調查顯示，中國約有2億人飽受脫發困擾。

看著自己日漸明顯的“地中海”，你可能會問：我的頭發為啥越來越少。

脫發的原因因人而異，通常和飲食、壓力、遺傳有關……其中，遺傳性脫發占比不少。

Hair loss can be hereditary. Hereditary hair loss is called androgenetic alopecia, or for males, male pattern baldness, and for females, female pattern baldness.
脫發有可能是遺傳性的。遺傳性脫發又稱為雄激素源性脫發，分為男性雄性脫和女性雄性脫。

這種脫發男女表現形式還不一樣，男性一般從發際線往后脫，女性則是彌散性地脫。

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.
遺傳性脫發的過程是毛囊脫落，新長出的頭發比之前更細軟，毛囊逐漸萎縮，最終頭發停止生長。

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.
父母的脫發基因都可能遺傳給下一代，如果父母雙方都脫發，下一代脫發的可能性更高。

拿什么拯救你，我的發際線！？

脫發的同學為了拯救自己的發際線，可謂嘗試了各種辦法，比如生姜洗發粉、防脫洗發水、生發梳，但效果往往一般。

那么脫發真的沒得救了？最近一群韓國科學家表示，他們或許找到了解決脫發煩惱的方法。

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.
由延世大學教授崔康烈（音譯）帶領的研究團隊發現了一種導致雄激素源性脫發（又稱斑禿）的蛋白質。雄激素源性脫發是男性和女性最常見的脫發類型。

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.”
“我們發現了一種可以控制頭發生長的蛋白質，并研發了一種新物質，通過控制蛋白質的功能來促進毛發再生。我們認為，這種新研發的物質將有助于研制一種能夠治療脫發，且能促進受損皮膚組織再生的藥物。”

科學家發現當一種叫做CXXC5的蛋白質與散亂蛋白結合時，它們會阻遏Wnt (一種復雜的蛋白質作用網絡，與毛發再生和傷口愈合有關) 信號通路，從而影響毛囊生長及再生秩序。

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.
為了干擾這種結合過程，研究人員研制出一種名為PTD-PBD的生物材料，并將這種物質涂在無毛白鼠皮膚上，持續28天后，白鼠長出了新的毛囊。

而根據2007年的一項研究，在小鼠實驗中，某些情況下，直徑超過5毫米的傷口在愈合時會產生新的毛囊。

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.
崔康烈的研究團隊發現，將創傷誘發毛發再生，PTD-PBD和丙戊酸結合起來，取得的效果最明顯。丙戊酸通常用于治療癲癇、雙向情感障礙、精神分裂和偏頭痛，在這個實驗里用來激活Wnt信號通路。

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.
創傷誘發毛囊再生、丙戊酸刺激與毛囊生長有關的細胞通路、PTD-PBD抑制劑阻止CXXC5干擾毛囊生長的過程，這三者結合產生了三重作用。

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.
新的治療方法通常需要很長一段研發時間，尤其是需要通過臨床實驗來確定其安全性。畢竟，以實驗小鼠代替人類來研究反應效果并不總是奏效。

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.
不過，研究團隊進展迅速。他們目前正在動物身上測試這種新物質，以確定是否有毒，然后再考慮進行人體試驗。

如果這個方法真的可行，那簡直就是禿頭人士的福音啊！

英文來源：sciencealert.com 中國日報雙語新聞（Chinadaily_Mobile）ChinaDaily英文微信（RealTimeChina）
編輯：董靜 焦潔 左卓 祝興媛
審校：丹妮