Combing-triggered electrostimulation synchronizing deep delivery for rapid hair regrowth in androgenetic alopecia

Androgenetic alopecia affects over 1.5 billion individuals, causing progressive hair loss with psychological and quality-of-life burdens. Current pharmacological treatment for androgenetic alopecia faces challenges due to systemic side effects from oral medications or limited efficacy of topical applications. Herein we develop a comb-shaped bioelectronic system, named “Detangle”, for efficient androgenetic alopecia treatment during daily hair combing. This system features electronic teeth embedded with height-differentiated electrodes and integrated drug-loading modules, which generate an enhanced electric field penetrating up to ~9 times deeper into hair follicle regions than conventional external application. We show that the localized electric field synchronizes electro-stimulating hair follicles, and electro-delivering vascular endothelial growth factor A encoding plasmid and steroid 5-alpha-reductase 2 targeting siRNA into follicular cells to promote angiogenesis and suppress androgen synthesis. Through the synergistic regulation of cellular metabolism, the system significantly increases hair restoration efficacy in an androgenetic alopecia mouse model, improving the outcome from ~70% to nearly 100% within one month compared to conventional topical minoxidil treatment. The Detangle system proves safe and effective for deep tissue delivery in dermatology. Here authors introduce a comb‑shaped bioelectronic device that uses enhanced electric fields for electrostimulation and deep acid delivery for androgenetic alopecia treatment. In mouse models, they show that this safe, non‑invasive approach achieves nearly 100% hair regrowth within one month.