The Science in Korean Medical Hair Loss Treatment 4 News Feed

(Reveal the cause of the hair loss first and then find the suitable herbal medicine)

In future, we will be having some time to find the scientific basis of the oriental medical herbs that helps hair growth and cures hair loss, and today I would like to look at the physical mechanism or physical changes around the follicles that are involved in the growth of the hair. If we know what biological substances are involved in the growth of the hair, we can find the components that can control such substances or find the medical herbs with such functions so that may be able to suppress hair loss and stimulate hair growth.

I have already explained the experiment report about inducing hair growth by making changes in CRH (corticotrophin releasing hormone), CRF (corticotrophin releasing factor), Substance P, PKC (protein kinase-c), etc. Now we are going to learn about the mast cell and the medicinal herbs that cause hair growth through controlling the mast cell.

Actually, the growth cycle of the hair is caused by a mechanism which is yet to be revealed further, and each stage are strictly regulated through actions of complicated mechanisms. The development of hair loss treatment has been so difficult because the factors related to hair loss and hair growth are complicated and various like this. However, researches to find the mechanism involved in the hair growth and growth cycle became active after 1950. Sometimes same results came out, and sometimes directly-opposed research papers came out, reconfirming that the hair’s growth cycle is controlled and caused by complicated mechanisms.

But among many researches, there was a study on the mast cell. The mast cell was not fully identified, but it was known that the mast cell is involved in the defensive function against the allergic reaction, inflammatory disease, or invading microorganism, and it stores and secrets various cytokine.

Norrby said, “Degranuation of the mast cells has an effect of causing topical cell transformation on that area (Norrby K, Enerback L, Franzen L : Mast cell activation and tissue cell proliferation. Cell Tissue Res 170: 289-303, 1976)”, and in 1978, Enerback and Mellblom said, “I think that the heparin and serotonin substances in the mast cells of a white rat will cause several changes related to the hair growth (Enerback L, Mellblom L : Growth related changes in the content of heparin and 5-hydroxytryptamine of mast cells. Cell Tissue Res 187: 367-378, 1978).”

And in 1993, Paul said, “Mast cells are involved in the reformation of tissue and hair growth manipulation by creating and releasing growth controlling elements such as cytokine, eicosanoids, proteases, infection carrying substance, and glycosaminoglycans, in his paper <Paul WE, Seder RA, Plaut M : Lymphokine and cytokine production by Fc-epsilon RI+ cells. Adv Immunol 53: 1-29, 1993.>

Like this, it has been clear that the mast cell involves in the growth cycle of the hair, but it has not been clearly known how its numbers change according to each stages of the growth cycle, and how it degranuate, and even in the existing researches, the results were different.

So I observed the change in the number of master cells according to each stages of the growth cycle in the C57BL/6N rat and the hairless rat.

We’ll first look through the experiment:

1. Experimental animal and observation item: The change in the number of master cells according to each stages of the growth cycle in the C57BL/6N rat and the hairless rat.

1) As a guinea pig, normal 10C57BL/6N mice weighting 25g were mated and among newborn mice, normal mice of 1day, 3days, 7days, and 35days after birth, and a mouse losing hair at the 21^st day (topical alopecia areata area is 21A-1, and normal skin area is 21A-2) and the mouse with alopecia areata and hair regrowing at the 29^th day (the skin area of regrowing hair after topical hair loss is called 29A-2, and the skin area without hair loss is called 29A-2) has been chosen. Among these, 6 of each mice was sacrificed to observe the change in the mast cell of the of the normal C57BL/6N mouse in its growth cycle stages or the mouse which hair loss and hair growth has occurred (Fig.1)

2) Experiment result of the C57BL/6N lab mouse: Change in the number of master cells dyed in TB (toluidine blue) solution.

	1일	3일	8일	35일	21A-1	21A-2	29A-1	29A-2
TB	48.8±3.2	32.7±2.3	23.6±3.6	24.6±4.6	55.1±4.3	26.0±4.2	29.8±4.3	12.1±3.4

21A-1: Hair loss area of the mouse with alopecia areata occurred at 21^st day. [Alopecia areata, no pigment (telogen phase)]

21A-2: Normal skin area of the mouse with alopecia areata occurred at 21^st day.

29A-1: Hair growth area of the mouse 29days after alopecia areata, pigment (anagen phase).

29A-2: Normal skin area of the mouse with hair regrowing 29days after alopecia areata.

TB : Tluidine blue,

Below is the graph of the above data.

Below is the graph of the change in the master cells of the mouse which suddenly had alopecia areata at the 21^st day.

3) 10 hairless mice of 25g were mated and among newborn mice, 6 from each 1day, 3days, 7days, 13days (time of hair growth), 17days (beginning of hair loss), 21days (during hair loss), and 56days (complete hair loss) after birth were sacrificed to compare the change in the master cells of hair growth region and the alopecia areata area according to the growth cycle stages (Fig.2).

4) Experiment result of the hairless lab mouse: Change in the number of master cells dyed in TB (toluidine blue) solution.

	3일	7일	13일	17일	21일	56일
TB	29.3±4.2	27.5±4.9	37.8±4.9	40.6±4.9	77.6±4.1	40.3±4.5

TB: Toluidine blue

The data put into a graph is as follows:

2. Conclusion

In the experiment, the number of the master cell of C57BL/6N mouse dyed in toluidin blue decreased during the 1^st day to 35days after birth. However, the area with alopecia areata and the normal area at the 21^st day have shown a big difference of 55.1±4.3 and 26.0±4.2, and the area which had alopecia areata and regrowing hair and the area without alopecia areata at the 29^th day, each had 29.8±4.3 and 12.1±3.4, which also has a big difference. Both cases show the increase in the number of the master cells in the alopecia areata area.

The number of master cells of the hairless mouse dyed in toluidin blue had no big difference during the 3^rd to 7^th day after birth, but it had a considerable increase during the 13^th and 21^st days and at the 56^th day, large number of degranuated master cells was observed which proves that the increase in the number of master cells of the hairless mouse that starts alopecia areata since the 17^th day is related to the hair loss.

To recap, the master cells with its increase and decrease in number are involved in the growth cycle of hair and a sudden increase in the master cell causes the hair to turn from anagen to talogen. However, in a hairless mouse, the increase in the number of master cells seemed to have a positive effect in the growth of the hair, so proper controls are thought to be important for the hair growth and the suppression of hair loss, and if such medication is developed, treatment of hair loss will be much easier.

Next time, we will look at the actual medicinal herbs and herbal medicines that cause hair growth through controlling the number of master cells.