Abstract
Conventional therapeutic applications of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) focus on cell replacement and differentiation; however, increasing evidence suggests that most of their therapeutic effects are carried out by their various secretions. This study investigated the application of conditioned medium (CM) from human umbilical cord blood-derived MSCs (hUCB-MSCs) to improve hair growth and developed a method to reliably produce this optimized CM. Primed MSC-derived CM (P-CM) with combinations of TGF-β1 and LiCl was optimized by comparing its effects on the cell viability of dermal papilla cells (DPCs). P-CM significantly increased the viability of DPCs compared to CM. The secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in DPCs was regulated by the macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in the P-CM secreted by MSCs. These findings suggest that P-CM can improve the efficacy in hair growth via a paracrine mechanism and that MIF in P-CM exerts hair growth-promoting effects via a VEGF-related β-catenin and p-GSK-3β [SER9] signaling pathway. Furthermore, clinical trials have shown that 5% P-CM improved androgenetic alopecia through producing an increased hair density, thickness, and growth rate, suggesting that this topical agent may be a novel and effective treatment option for patients with androgenetic alopecia.
Highlights
Hair loss, known as alopecia or baldness, occurs in two forms—localized and diffuse—with an increasing incidence as men and women age
To investigate the effect of primed conditioned medium (P-CM) on dermal papilla cells (DPCs), mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) derived from human Umbilical cord blood (UCB) were first treated with TGF-β1 and LiCl for 1 day
CM and Primed MSC-derived CM (P-CM) were used to treat DPCs for 48 h and these cultures were subject to the CCK-8 assay to determine the cell viability, the important consideration, changes in the intracellular metabolic activity, still remained
Summary
Known as alopecia or baldness, occurs in two forms—localized and diffuse—with an increasing incidence as men and women age. Patterned hair loss is divided into androgenetic alopecia for men and female pattern hair loss for women. The standard treatment for this condition is either hair follicle transplantation or the stimulation of these follicles with topical or oral medication [3,4,5,6]. These methods are not proven to treat hair loss and can
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