Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the promoting effect of Ishige sinicola, an alga native to Jeju Island, Korea, on hair growth. When vibrissa follicles were cultured in the presence of I. sinicola extract for 21 days, I. sinicola extract increased hair-fiber length. After topical application of I. sinicola extract onto the back of C57BL/6 mice, anagen progression of the hair shaft was induced. The I. sinicola extract significantly inhibited the activity of 5α-reductase. Treatment of immortalized vibrissa dermal papilla cells (DPCs) with I. sinicola extract resulted in increase of cell proliferation, which was accompanied by the increase of phospho-GSK3β level, β-catenin, Cyclin E and CDK2, whereas p27kip1 was down-regulated. In particular, octaphlorethol A, an isolated component from the I. sinicola extract, inhibited the activity of 5α-reductase and increased the proliferation of DPCs. These results suggest that I. sinicola extract and octaphlorethol A, a principal of I. sinicola, have the potential to treat alopecia via the proliferation of DPCs followed by the activation of β-catenin pathway, and the 5α-reductase inhibition.
Highlights
There have been an increasing number of people suffering from hair loss, which has mostly emerged from psychological and physical stress [1]
When rat vibrissa follicles were treated with various concentrations of I. sinicola extract for 3 weeks, in particular, the hair-fiber length of the vibrissa follicles treated with 1 μg/mL of I. sinicola extract significantly increased compared with the control (Figure 1)
The results suggest that octaphlorethol A could have the potential for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia (AGA) via the 5α-reductase inhibition
Summary
There have been an increasing number of people suffering from hair loss, which has mostly emerged from psychological and physical stress [1]. It was found to stimulate hair growth by the opening of ATP-sensitive K+-channel [7,8], the up-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) [9] and the activation of β-catenin pathway [10] in dermal papilla cells (DPCs). Several natural products were reported to promote hair growth via the proliferation of DPCs [13,14,15]. Wnt/β-catenin plays an important role in hair growth, regeneration as well as cell proliferation [16,17,18]. The effect of I. sinicola and the bio-active components of I. sinicola on the promotion of hair growth have not yet been reported. The present study was carried out to investigate the promoting effect of I. sinicola extract and as an active component regarding hair growth
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