Hair growth-promoting activity of hot water extract of Thuja orientalis

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Hye-Jin Park¹  Nan-nan Zhang¹  Dong Ki Park² 

[1] Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Konkuk University, 1 Kwayang-dong, 143-701, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Konkuk University, 1 Kwayang-dong, 143-701, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Cell Activation Research Institute, Konkuk University, 1 Hwayang-dong, 143-701, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea;

关键词: Anagen;    β-catenin;    Hair follicles;    Hair growth;    Sonic hedgehog (Shh);    Thuja orientalis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-13-9

 received in 2012-05-25, accepted in 2012-12-19,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThuja orientalis has been traditionally used to treat patients who suffer from baldness and hair loss in East Asia. The present study sought to investigate the hair growth-promoting activity of T. orientalis hot water extract and the underlying mechanism of action.MethodsAfter T. orientalis extract was topically applied to the shaved dorsal skin of telogenic C57BL/6 N mice, the histomorphometric analysis was employed to study induction of the hair follicle cycle. To determine the effect of T. orientalis extract on the telogen to anagen transition, the protein expression levels of β-catenin and Sonic hedgehog (Shh) in hair follicles were determined by immunohistochemistry.ResultsWe observed that T. orientalis extract promoted hair growth by inducing the anagen phase in telogenic C57BL/6 N mice. Specifically, the histomorphometric analysis data indicates that topical application of T. orientalis extract induced an earlier anagen phase and prolonged the mature anagen phase, in contrast to either the control or 1% minoxidil-treated group. We also observed increases in both the number and size of hair follicles of the T. orientalis extract-treated group. Moreover, the immunohistochemical analysis reveals earlier induction of β-catenin and Shh proteins in hair follicles of the T. orientalis extract-treated group, compared to the control or 1% minoxidil-treated group.ConclusionThese results suggest that T. orientalis extract promotes hair growth by inducing the anagen phase in resting hair follicles and might therefore be a potential hair growth-promoting agent.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Zhang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.