Stromal Vascular Fraction and Platelet-Rich Plasma Upregulate Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression to Promote Hair Growth via the Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway

Abstract

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a hair loss disease. At present, use of the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) are thought to be the novel, safe, and effective treatment options of AGA, but the mechanism by which SVF and PRP promote hair growth is unclear. Here, we investigated the mechanism underlying the effects of SVF and PRP on hair growth by in vitro culture and in vivo modeling. SVF and PRP promoted hair growth, as was evident from the observation and counting of hair on the back skin of nude mice using ImageJ software. SVF and PRP promoted hair growth, and SVF worked better. We performed nucleic acid extraction with nanomagnetic beads, and the protein levels were extracted with a bicinchoninic acid protein assay kit. The results of western blot analysis and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) showed that both SVF and PRP promoted the expression of anti-apoptotic genes. The effect of SVF was better than that of PRP. The results of EdU and hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that SVF and PRP induced the proliferation of hair follicle cells. SVF exerted better effects on the proliferation of hair follicle cells than PRP. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) results showed that the expression of the proteins associated with the Wnt/β-catenin process, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Wnt10b, and β-catenin, significantly increased in the SVF-treated and PRP-treated dermal/epidermal cells as compared with the control cells. Therefore, SVF and PRP increased the expression of VEGF and PDGF through the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to promote hair growth. The effect of SVF on dermal cells/epidermal cells was stronger than that of PRP, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05).