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Posted: 30 Mar 2013 07:24 AM PDT
Khidhir KG, Woodward DF, Farjo NP, et al. The prostamide-related glaucoma therapy, bimatoprost, offers a novel approach for treating scalp alopecias. Faseb J 2013;27(2):557-67. http://www.fasebj.org/content/
Balding causes widespread psychological distress but is poorly controlled. The commonest treatment, minoxidil, was originally an antihypertensive drug that promoted unwanted hair. We hypothesized that another serendipitous discovery, increased eyelash growth side-effects of prostamide F(2alpha)-related eyedrops for glaucoma, may be relevant for scalp alopecias. Eyelash hairs and follicles are highly specialized and remain unaffected by androgens that inhibit scalp follicles and stimulate many others. Therefore, we investigated whether non-eyelash follicles could respond to bimatoprost, a prostamide F(2alpha) analog recently licensed for eyelash hypotrichosis. Bimatoprost, at pharmacologically selective concentrations, increased hair synthesis in scalp follicle organ culture and advanced mouse pelage hair regrowth in vivo compared to vehicle alone. A prostamide receptor antagonist blocked isolated follicle growth, confirming a direct, receptor-mediated mechanism within follicles; RT-PCR analysis identified 3 relevant receptor genes in scalp follicles in vivo. Receptors were located in the key follicle regulator, the dermal papilla, by analyzing individual follicular structures and immunohistochemistry. Thus, bimatoprost stimulates human scalp follicles in culture and rodent pelage follicles in vivo, mirroring eyelash behavior, and scalp follicles contain bimatoprost-sensitive prostamide receptors in vivo. This highlights a new follicular signaling system and confirms that bimatoprost offers a novel, low-risk therapeutic approach for scalp alopecias.
Possible Mechanism For The Stimulation Of Hair Growth By Bimatoprost
Bimatoprost stimulates eyelash growth in vivo, human scalp hair growth in organ culture, and mouse pelage hair growth in vivo. In our hypothesis, these effects are due to bimatoprost binding to appropriate receptors on the plasma membrane of cells in the regulatory dermal papilla in the hair bulb (middle panel). This probably stimulates intracellular signaling pathways, which trigger alterations in the gene expression of paracrine signals and their extracellular release. Some of these factors would leave the dermal papilla, crossing the basement membrane, isolating it from the rest of the follicle, to stimulate the coordinated activity of the keratinocytes and melanocytes to produce increased hair growth and pigmentation. Red dots indicate FP and/or prostamide F2α receptors, blue arrows indicate direction of movement of paracrine factors.
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Effective Hair Loss Treatment with Eyelash Growth Drug
Bimatoprost is known as the brand name Latisse. It was used for glaucoma for years and it was found that one of its side effects was eyelash growth. So it was approved for that purpose with the name Latisse. Emerging data show that this drug may also work to reverse hair loss in men and women.
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