An extract of Leontopodium alpinum inhibits catagen development ex vivo and increases hair density in vivo

Abstract

Objectives: Hair loss and reduction in hair volume are hallmarks of hair disorders, such as telogen effluvium, or male or female pattern hair loss, and hair ageing, which can cause severe distress in both men and women. Common antihair loss drugs carry some side effects; therefore, novel, safer approaches targeting milder phenotypes are highly advocated. In this context, we investigated an extract of the alpine plant Edelweiss, Leontopodium alpinum var. Helvetia, for its ability to modulate hair follicle (HF) growth ex vivo and inhibit hair loss while increasing hair regeneration in vivo.Methods: Human amputated HFs were microdissected from three donors, two women and one man, and cultured ex vivo for 6 days. After treatment with 0.001% Edelweiss extract (EWDE), we investigated hair shaft production and anagen/catagen conversion, and measured known parameters associated with hair growth, that is hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation and apoptosis, dermal papilla inductivity, and growth factors, by quantitative (immuno)histomorphometry. To assess the anti-hair loss potential of the alpine plant compound, we performed a randomized, placebo-controlled human study enrolling Caucasian women and men, aged 18 to 65 years, with normal hair loss. After 5 months' daily use of an extract containing leave-on serum, we analysed hair density and anagen-to-catagen/telogen ratio by the Trichogram analysis. Results:Our results revealed a significant prolongation in the anagen phase in HFs treated with 0.001% Edelweiss, as indicated by an increase in HFs remaining in anagen and a significant decrease in hair cycle score. In line with this effect, EWDE significantly stimulated hair matrix (HM) keratinocyte proliferation, and dermal papilla inductivity, as shown by a significant up-regulation of versican expression and alkaline phosphatase activity, and a tendential increase in FGF7 immunoreactivity in the dermal papilla of all HFs or only anagen VI HFs.Corroborating the ex vivo results, we observed a significant increase in growingThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

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“…Apoptotic cells in skin cryosections (7 μm) were assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) according to previously described protocols [37,[42][43][44]. Briefly, the cryosections were fixed in 4% PFA in PBS and then labelled with digoxigenin-deoxy-UTP (ApopTag fluorescein in situ apoptosis detection kit; Merck Millipore, USA) in the presence of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase.…”

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“…Although both groups had similar treatment outcomes, pumpkin seed oil was identified as a new and safe treatment option. Campiche et al [68] identified the effects of Leontopodium alpinum in regulating hair follicle growth, including inhibition of hair loss in vitro and an increase in hair regrowth in vivo. Nakamura et al [69] discovered that water-soluble peptides from egg yolk, also known as hair growth peptide (HGP), stimulate the production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and human dermal papilla cell growth by inducing hypoxia-induced factor (HIF)-1a-mediated transcriptional pathways and VEGF expression.…”