Posted 18 December 2008 - 09:56 AM
interesting stuff.
on the melatonin point:
Melatonin increases anagen hair rate in women with androgenetic alopecia or diffuse alopecia: results of a pilot randomized controlled trial.
[My paper] T W Fischer, G Burmeister, H W Schmidt, P Elsner
Department of Dermatology and Allergology, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Erfurter Strasse 35, D-07740 Jena, Germany ASAT Applied Science and Technology, Zug, Switzerland.
BACKGROUND: In addition to the well-known hormonal influences of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone on the hair cycle, melatonin has been reported to have a beneficial effect on hair growth in animals. The effect of melatonin on hair growth in humans has not been investigated so far. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether topically applied melatonin influences anagen and telogen hair rate in women with androgenetic or diffuse hair loss. METHODS: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was conducted in 40 women suffering from diffuse alopecia or androgenetic alopecia. A 0.1% melatonin or a placebo solution was applied on the scalp once daily for 6 months and trichograms were performed to assess anagen and telogen hair rate. To monitor effects of treatment on physiological melatonin levels, blood samples were taken over the whole study period. RESULTS: Melatonin led to a significantly increased anagen hair rate in occipital hair in women with androgenetic hair loss compared with placebo (n = 12; P = 0.012). For frontal hair, melatonin gave a significant increase in the group with diffuse alopecia (n = 28; P = 0.046). The occipital hair samples of patients with diffuse alopecia and the frontal hair counts of those with androgenetic alopecia also showed an increase of anagen hair, but differences were not significant. Plasma melatonin levels increased under treatment with melatonin, but did not exceed the physiological night peak. CONCLUSIONS: To the authors' knowledge, this pilot study is the first to show that topically applied melatonin might influence hair growth in humans in vivo. The mode of action is not known, but the effect might result from an induction of anagen phase.
Mesh-terms: Melatonin :: administration & dosage; Hair :: growth & development; Administration, Topical; Adult; Aged; Alopecia :: drug therapy; Double-Blind Method; Female; Human; Middle Aged; Pilot Projects; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Treatment Outcome;
Latest citations:
Melatonin and the hair follicle
Tobias W. Fischer 1 , Andrzej Slominski 2 , Desmond J. Tobin 3 and Ralf Paus 1
1 Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany ; 2 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA ; 3 Medical Biosciences Research, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Correspondence to Address reprint requests to Ralf Paus, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany.
E-mail: ralf.paus@uk-sh.de
Copyright 2007 The Authors Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Munksgaard
KEYWORDS
anagen • apoptosis • estrogen receptor • hair cycle • hair follicle • hair pigmentation • melatonin • melatonin receptor
ABSTRACT
Abstract: Melatonin, the chief secretory product of the pineal gland, has long been known to modulate hair growth, pigmentation and/or molting in many species, presumably as a key neuroendocrine regulator that couples coat phenotype and function to photoperiod-dependent environmental and reproductive changes. However, the detailed effects and mechanisms of this surprisingly pleiotropic indole on the hair follicle (HF) regarding growth control and pigmentation have not yet been completely understood. While unspecific melatonin binding sites have long been identified (e.g., in goat and mouse HFs), specific melatonin membrane MT2 receptor transcripts and both protein and mRNA expression for a specific nuclear melatonin binding site [retinoid-related orphan receptor α (RORα)] have only recently been identified in murine HFs. MT1, known to be expressed in human skin cells, is not transcribed in mouse skin. After initial enzymologic data from hamster skin related to potential intracutaneous melatonin synthesis, it has recently been demonstrated that murine and human skin, namely human scalp HFs in anagen, are important sites of extrapineal melatonin synthesis. Moreover, HF melatonin production is enhanced by catecholamines (as it classically occurs in the pineal gland). Melatonin may also functionally play a role in hair-cycle control, as it down-regulates both apoptosis and estrogen receptor-α expression, and modulates MT2 and RORα expression in murine skin in a hair-cycle-dependent manner. Because of melatonin's additional potency as a free radical scavenger and DNA repair inducer, the metabolically and proliferatively highly active anagen hair bulb may also exploit melatonin synthesis in loco as a self-cytoprotective strategy.
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Received August 19, 2007; accepted September 17, 2007.
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