Effect of Orthosiphon stamineus plant extract on in vitro dermal papilla cell proliferation and ex vivo hair growth

Abstract

Background : The study of Orthosiphon stamineus (OSE) on hair growth is still limited. The potential use of OSE as hair growth promotion in both human dermal papilla cells and androgenic alopecia (AGA) patient hair follicle model may be used to develop a novel hair promoting products derived from Thai natural resources.

Objective : The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of Orthosiphon stamineus plant extract on in vitro dermal papilla cell proliferation and ex vivo hair growth.

Methods : Dermal papilla cell lines were cultured with medium and OSE at concentration 25 - 250 μg/mL for 24 hr for acute cytotoxicity evaluation and 5 days to detect proliferation. In ex vivo hair follicle culture, 45 hair samples from three AGA patients were cultured for 14 days in medium and OSE at 125, 250,500 μg/mL. Hair length was measured every two days and the results were compared with vehicle treated control and positive control.

Results : OSE at concentration 25 - 250 μg/mL showed no acute cytotoxicity to cell after 24 hours culture. Furthermore, OSE at all concentrations could stimulate dermal papilla cell proliferation when cultured for 5 days, (P <0.05). Also, OSE at 500 μg/mL could enhance hair follicles of androgenic alopecia patients in vitro by 12% after 14 days of culturing which were more than vehicle (6.46%) (P <0.05). And based on area under the curve from day 0 – day 14, OSE at 500 μg/mL could enhance total hair growth significantly at 217% (P <0.05), compared to vehicle but OSE at lower concentration and positive control were not significantly different from vehicle.

Conclusion : OSE could significantly stimulate growth of human hair follicle of AGA patients ex vivo and promoted proliferation of the dermal papilla cells compared to vehicle treated control.