Water extract of cacumen platycladi promotes hair growth through the Akt/GSK3β/β-catenin signaling pathway

Abstract

Cacumen Platycladi (CP) consists of the dried needles of Platycladus orientalis L.) Franco. It was clinically demonstrated that it effectively regenerates hair, but the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Thus, we employed shaved mice to verify the hair growth-promoting capability of the water extract of Cacumen Platycladi (WECP). The morphological and histological analyses revealed that WECP application could significantly promote hair growth and hair follicles (HFs) construction, in comparison to that of control group. Additionally, the skin thickness and hair bulb diameter were significantly increased by the application of WECP in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, the high dose of WECP also showed an effect similar to that of finasteride. In an in vitro assay, WECP stimulated dermal papilla cells (DPCs) proliferation and migration. Moreover, the upregulation of cyclins (cyclin D1, cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), and cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4)) and downregulation of P21 in WECP-treated cell assays have been evaluated. We identified the ingredients of WECP using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q/TOF-MS) and endeavored to predict their relevant molecular mechanisms by network analysis. We found that the Akt (serine/threonine protein kinase) signaling pathway might be a crucial target of WECP. It has been demonstrated that WECP treatment activated the phosphorylation of Akt and glycogen synthase kinase-3-beta (GSK3β), promoted β-Catenin and Wnt10b accumulation, and upregulated the expression of lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 (LEF1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). We also found that WECP significantly altered the expression levels of apoptosis-related genes in mouse dorsal skin. The enhancement capability of WECP on DPCs proliferation and migration could be abrogated by the Akt-specific inhibitor MK-2206 2HCl. These results suggested that WECP might promote hair growth by modulating DPCs proliferation and migration through the regulation of the Akt/GSK3β/β-Catenin signaling pathway.

Sesamin attenuates UVA‐induced keratinocyte injury via inhibiting ASK‐1‐JNK/p38 MAPK pathways

“…Western blotting was performed as previously described 17 to examine changes in protein content and/or phosphorylation. Briefly, after designated treatments, cells were lysed and centrifuged to obtain protein samples.…”

Biotransformation of Cacumen platycladi Extract by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum CCFM1348 Promotes Hair Growth in Mice

“…14 Fu et al observed that rutin, myricetin, quercetin and isoquercitrin are main components in the water extract of CP by UPLC-Q/ TOF-MS in positive and negative ion modes. 13 We investigated changes in the phenolic contents of the different metabolites before and after fermentation using LC-MS (Table 3). Our results showed that the contents of homovanillic acid, protocatechuic acid, sinapinic acid, naringenin, eriodictyol, apigenin, and gallic acid significantly increased after fermentation, whereas those of ferulic acid, syringic acid, 4coumaric acid, and apigetrin decreased.…”

“…Grouping. The anesthetized C57BL/6 mice (male, age 6 weeks, 20 ± 2 g) were then shaved with a clipper (Codos; Wuxi, China), denuded with depilatory cream (Veet, Shanghai, China), and randomly divided into five groups (n = 12), namely, control (saline), Fin (10 mg/kg finasteride), NF (160 mg/kg CPE 13 ), Pos (160 mg/kg FCP by L. plantarum CCFM1348), and Syn (160 mg/kg CPE and 5 × 10 9 cfu/mL of L. plantarum CCFM1348 live bacteria). All mice were administered respective treatments daily for 21 days.…”

“…CP water extract promotes hair growth through the Akt/GSK3β/β-catenin signaling pathway which mediates the secretion of various growth factors in DPCs, 13 such as VEGF and TGF-β1, meanwhile DKK-1 is an inhibitor. 21 To further screen the strains, signaling molecules were analyzed using ELISA.…”

Mechanism of action of Buqing Granule against Diabetic retinopathy based on network pharmacology and animal experiments

“…Network pharmacology is a new field that combines computer science and systems biology to study the mechanism of drug action and the molecular design of multi-target drugs [10]. It focuses on the study of “drug-disease-target gene” interaction networks at a systemic and comprehensive level.…”