New hope for men and women who have lost their hair has taken root at Yale University.

Researchers with the university's school of medicine report growing hair -- lots of it -- on a 25-year-old man with almost no hair due to alopecia universalis, a disease in which the body loses its hair, as well as plaque psoriasis, a condition characterized by scaly, red areas of skin.

Until the new research success was announced, there had been no known cure or long-term treatment for the rare disease, said a university news release.

As a result of the experimental treatment, the subject has also grown eyebrows and eyelashes, as well as facial, armpit and other hair he'd lacked.

Results of the new work have been published online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

"The results are exactly what we hoped for," Dr. Brett A. King, assistant professor of dermatology and senior author of the study, said in the release. "This is a huge step forward in the treatment of patients with this condition. While it's one case, we anticipated the successful treatment of this man based on our current understanding of the disease and the drug. We believe the same results will be duplicated in other patients, and we plan to try."

King suspected it was possible to treat the patient -- who suffered from both alopecia universalis and plaque psoriasis -- using an existing drug for rheumatoid arthritis called tofacitinib citrate.

Already approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, the drug had been used in humans to treat psoriasis, but also in mice to reverse alopecia areata, a less extreme form of alopecia universalis.

"This case highlights the interplay between advances in science and the treatment of disease," King said, "and it provides a compelling example of the ways in which an increasingly complex understanding of medicine, combined with ingenuity in treatment, benefits patients."

The best available science "suggested this might work," King said, "and it has."

After ingesting 10 mg of tofacitinib daily for two months, the patient showed notable improvement from his psoriasis and had grown scalp and facial hair.

After three more months of the drug therapy at 15 mg daily, the patient had completely regrown scalp hair, along with eyebrows, eyelashes, hair in his armpits and other areas of his body, the research said.

"By eight months there was full regrowth of hair," said co-author Brittany G. Craiglow. "The patient has reported feeling no side effects and we've seen no lab test abnormalities, either."

King explained that tofacitinib spurs hair regrowth in those who suffer alopecia universalis by turning off the immune system's attack on hair follicles, which the disease causes.

King is going forward with a proposal for a clinical trial involving a cream form of tofacitinib as a treatment for alopecia areata.