Hair growth promoting effect and action mechanism of Chrysanthemum zawadskii extract

Abstract

Hair loss, medically referred to as alopecia, is a common condition that causes serious distress to those affected by this disease. The key feature of hair loss is a progressive shortening of anagen duration with a resultant progressive miniaturization of terminal hairs to vellus-like hairs. Therefore, promoting or prolonging hair follicle anagen duration is a key element in the development of remedies for the treatment and prevention of hair loss.This study was conducted to evaluate the promoting effect and action mechanism of Chrysanthemum zawadskii (CZ) extract on hair growth. CZ extract was applied topically onto the back of depilated C57BL/6 mice every day for 30 days. Hair shaft elongation was measured using an organ culture model of human scalp hair follicles. Proliferation of human dermal papilla (DP) cells was determined by MTT assay. mRNA expression level of growth factors related to hair growth was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.CZ extract was shown to induce an earlier conversion of telogen to anagen and promoted hair growth in the C57BL/6 mouse model. When human hair follicles were cultured in the presence of CZ extract for 8 days, CZ extract significantly promoted hair growth and prolonged anagen duration by reducing apoptosis and inducing proliferation of hair follicle cells in the bulb region. Treatment of human DP cells with CZ extract resulted in an increase of cell proliferation, increase of hair growth promoting factor (vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF; insulin-like growth factor 1, IGF-1) expression and decrease of hair inhibitory factor (transforming growth factor β1, TGF-β1) expression. In particular, isolated jaceosidin and eupatilin, components from CZ extract, promoted the growth of human hair follicles, increased the proliferation of DP cells, induced VEGF, and reduced TGF-β1 expression.These

results suggest that CZ extract and its principal components, jaceosidin and eupatilin, have hair growth promoting potential through the regulation of growth factors in DP cells and promotion of DP cell proliferation.