Millet seed oil activates β-catenin signaling and promotes hair growth

Eunyoung Lee; Hyo-Deok Seo; Daedong Kim; So-Hyun Park; Soo Ro Kim; Changhun Hyun; Jeong-Hoon Hahm; Tae-Youl Ha; Jiyun Ahn; Chang Hwa Jung

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1172084

Millet seed oil activates β-catenin signaling and promotes hair growth

Front Pharmacol. 2023 May 9:14:1172084. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1172084. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Eunyoung Lee¹, Hyo-Deok Seo¹, Daedong Kim^{1

2}, So-Hyun Park^{1

2}, Soo Ro Kim³, Changhun Hyun⁴, Jeong-Hoon Hahm¹, Tae-Youl Ha^{1

2}, Jiyun Ahn^{1

2}, Chang Hwa Jung^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Aging and Metabolism Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute, Wanju-Gun, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Food Biotechnology, University of Science and Technology, Wanju-Gun, Republic of Korea.
³ Suheung Research Center, Seongnam-si, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Balanceway, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Alopecia, regardless of gender, exacerbates psychological stress in those affected. The rising prevalence of alopecia has fueled a research interest in preventing hair loss. This study investigates the potential of millet seed oil (MSO) in promoting the proliferation of hair follicle dermal papilla cells (HFDPC) and stimulating hair growth in animals with testosterone-dependent hair growth inhibition as part of a study on dietary treatments to improve hair growth. MSO-treated HFDPC significantly increased cell proliferation and phosphorylation of AKT, S6K1, and GSK3β proteins. This induces β-catenin, a downstream transcription factor, to translocate to the nucleus and increase the expression of factors related to cell growth. In a C57BL/6 mice model in which hair growth was inhibited by subcutaneous testosterone injection after shaving the dorsal skin, oral administration of MSO stimulated hair growth in the subject mice by increasing the size and number of hair follicles. These results suggest that MSO is a potent agent that may help prevent or treat androgenetic alopecia by promoting hair growth.

Keywords: alopecia; beta-catenin; dermal papilla cells; hair growth; millet seed oil.

Grants and funding

This study was conducted under the “Embellishment and demonstration of bio-material data platform (P114000049)” supervised by the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology with the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy Korea.