Hair-growth promoting effect of bimatoprost

Importance of prostaglandin pathway in hair growth has been reported and, in particular, PGF2α was reported to promote hair growth. We thus examined the efficacy of several PGF2α analogues such as latanoprost, bimatoprost, unoprostone and travoprost, on the proliferation of dermal papilla cells (DPC), regulator of hair cycle and length of hair follicles, uging immortalized DPC from rat vibrissa follicles. Among these compounds, bimatoprost showed outstanding effectiveness on the proliferation of DPC. When rat vibrissa follicles were treated with bimatoprost, hair-fiber length of vibrissa follicles significantly increased. When we examined the effect of bimatoprost on the regulation of cell cycle, bimatoprost was found to decrease the Sub-G1 population and to increase the expression of cell cycle regulated proteins such as CDK2 and Cyclin E in DPC. Bimatoprost also increased the expression of β-catenin as well as the expression of Cox-2, target gene of β-catenin. Taken together, our results suggest that bimatoprost increased the hair growth by progression of cell cycle through upregulation of CDK2, Cyclin E and β-catenin.

Keywords: bimatoprost, hair growth, dermal papilla cells, cell cycle, vibrissa follicle