Dihydrotestosterone Regulates Hair Growth Through the Wnt/β-Catenin Pathway in C57BL/6 Mice and In   Vitro Organ Culture

• Published in: Frontiers in pharmacology Vol. 10; p. 1528
• Main Authors: Chen, Xianyan, Liu, Ben, Li, Ying, Han, Le, Tang, Xin, Deng, Wenjia, Lai, Wei, Wan, Miaojian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 23-01-2020
• Subjects: androgenetic alopecia; dihydrotestosterone; hair follicle; hair growth; Pharmacology; Wnt/β-catenin pathway; β-catenin activator; β-catenin activator; hair follicle; Wnt/β-catenin pathway; hair growth; dihydrotestosterone; androgenetic alopecia
• ISSN: 1663-9812; 1663-9812
• DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2019.01528

Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the most potent androgen that regulates hair cycling. Hair cycling involves cross-talk between the androgen and Wnt/β-catenin pathways. However, how DHT regulates hair follicle (HF) growth through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway has not been well investigated. This study aimed to investigate the roles of DHT in hair growth
and
. Human scalp HFs were treated with different concentrations of DHT (10
, 10
, 10
, 10
, and 10
mol/L) for 10 days. The effects of DHT on hair shaft elongation, the proliferation of hair matrix cells, and the levels of β-catenin, GSK-3β, and phosphorylated GSK-3β (ser9) were evaluated in the cultured HFs. The effects of DHT were further investigated in C57BL/6 mice. Moreover, the growth of cultured human HFs was observed after interfering with the β-catenin pathway through inhibitors or activators in the presence or absence of DHT. We found that different concentrations of DHT had different effects on human HFs
and C57BL/6 mice. At 10
mol/L, DHT inhibited HF growth and β-catenin/p-GSK-3β expression, whereas 10
mol/L DHT induced HF growth and β-catenin/p-GSK-3β expression. In addition, a β-catenin inhibitor (21H7) inhibited HF growth
, while a β-catenin activator (IM12) promoted HF growth
and antagonized the inhibition of HFs by high levels of DHT. These results suggest that DHT plays a pivotal role in region-specific hair growth, which may be related to the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.