P4.36 THE HAIR GROWTH PROMOTING EFFECT OF HEM-13/HDC, AN ORIENTAL HERBAL MEDICINE, AND ITS MOLECULAR REGULATION

¹Eun-Young Choi, ²Young-Jun Park, and ¹Myung-Hee Chung

¹Department of Pharmacology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, and  ²Handock Cosmetics Co. LTD., Seoul, Korea

In Korean folk medicine, several herbs, Glycyrrhizae Radix, Persicae Semen, Salviae Radix, Angelicae Gigantis Radix, Zanthoxyli Fructus, Ginseng Radix Alba, Cnidii Rhizoma, and Carthami Flos, are known to enhance blood circulation and to have wound healing and/or anti-inflammatory effects. These pharmacological actions prompted us to investigate whether these herbs might stimulate hair growth. Thus, we investigated the effects of a mixture of their extracts, called HEM-13/HDC, and found that HEM-13/HDC possesses significant hair cycle converting activity from the telogen phase to the anagen phase in C3H mice. It was also found to have an effect on the growth of in vitro cultured human hair follicle tissue and cells, indicating that it might have the mitogenic effect on hair follicle. RT-PCR analysis showed that HEM-13/HDC induced the mRNA levels of growth factors, such as VEGF and KGF, in dermal papilla cells, suggesting that its effect on hair growth may be mediated through the regulation of growth factors in dermal papilla. Furthermore, it was found to promote the conversion of hair to the anagen phase in subjects showing male pattern hair loss. The hair growth promotion effect of HEM-13/HDC was found to occur partly through the inhibition of steroid 5-reductase activity, which is known to block hair growth. Taken together, these results suggest that HEM-13/HDC has potential use in the treatment of hair loss.