For people who suffer baldness that comes from having alopecia areata, scientists may have come up with a cure in the form of a pill that helps regrow hair. The treatment currently exists in pill form and has been tested on mice and now humans to much success, receiving FDA approval.

Early tests of the drug included using papilla cells from seven men, reports the New York Times. The men were currently undergoing hair transplants, and scientists cultured the papilla cells in hanging drops "and then injected them into human skin grafted onto mice." In order to put their treatment to the ultimate test, scientist used the foreskins from circumcised babies to regrow the hair, according to the report.

Although research into non-surgical hair growth has been going on for sometime, the recent drug approval came after researchers at Columbia University isolated "the immune cells responsible for destroying hair follicles in people with alopecia areata, a common autoimmune disease that causes hair loss," the university reported. Several patients tested during Columbia's trials experienced hair regrowth.

"Two FDA-approved JAK inhibitors tested separately by the researchers-ruxolitinib and tofacitinib," reported Columbia scientists, "were able to block these immune pathways and stop the attack on the hair follicles." Dr. Angela M. Christiano, one of the lead researchers on this development has been looking for ways to help people who suffer hair loss from alopecia.

"Patients with alopecia areata are suffering profoundly, and these findings mark a significant step forward for them," she said. Christiano had previously gotten a special procedure patented, which was her work with the APCDD1 gene, which causes hair loss, and "has potential for future male-pattern baldness treatments, and for regulating male and female hair growth, density of hair, and hair graying." The discovery of that gene was completed after a study of a family that had suffered hair loss that begins in childhood.