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 Dr. Lee is the founder and owner of Regrowth LLC, a company based in Los Angeles and dedicated to the treatment of hair loss. He has been developing innovative products and treating hair loss sufferers for the past 16 years. Dr. Lee is the creator of the Xandrox line of hair loss treatments.
Important Note: Due a busy schedule, Dr. Lee cannot answer any new questions at this time; however, he will be providing high quality answers to questions he receives from his own practice exclusively to Morphollica.com regularly
anonymous
2005-08-10
The herb Asiasari Radix in treatment of MPB
How much credibility do you ascribe to the use of the herb, Asiasari radix, in the treatment of MPB?
An article in the Journal of Dermatology Science (May 2005) entitled
“The hair growth promoting effect of Asiasari radix extract and its molecular regulation”
was submitted by a group of researchers from the Oriental Medical
College of Daejeon University, 22-5 Daeheung-dong, Daejeon 301-724,
South Korea. Here’s the abstract:
The hair growth promoting effect of Asiasari radix extract and its
molecular regulation.
BACKGROUND: Hair loss is a distressing condition for an increasing
number of men and women. It is of great importance; therefore, to
develop new therapies for the treatment of hair loss.
OBJECTIVE: We examined the effects of 45 plant extracts that have been
traditionally used for treating hair loss in oriental medicine in order
to identify potential stimulants of hair growth.
METHODS: Six-week-old female C57BL/6 and C3H mice were used for
evaluating the hair growth-promoting effects of the plant extracts.
Topical application onto the backs of the C57BL/6 and C3H mice was
performed daily for 30 days and 45 days, respectively. Protein synthesis
was measured by the cysteine uptake assay, using cultured murine
vibrissae follicles. Proliferation of the immortalized human
keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) and human dermal papilla (DP) cells was
evaluated by the MTT and thymidine incorporation assays. The mRNA levels
of several growth factors that have been implicated in hair growth
control were measured by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR).
RESULTS: Among the tested plant extracts, the extract of Asiasari radix
showed the most potent hair growth stimulation in C57BL/6 and C3H mice
experiments. In addition, this extract markedly increased the protein
synthesis in vibrissae follicle cultures and the proliferation of both
HaCaT and human DP cells in vitro. Moreover, the A. radix extract
induced the expression of VEGF in human DP cells that were cultured in
vitro.
CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the A. radix extract has hair
growth-promoting potential, and that this effect may be due to its
regulatory effects on both cell growth and growth factor gene
expression.
In addition to the studies done on mice, the in
vitro studies using human keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells showed
that Asiasari radix increased the proliferation of both types of cells
compared to controls and that Asiasari radix influenced different growth
factors shown to effect hair growth. In the dermal papilla cells there
was a significant increase in expression of vascular endothelial growth
factor (VEGF), a growth factor involved in forming new blood vessels.
The expression of VEGF is normally increased in dermal papilla cells
during anagen phase and then decreased in the telogen and catagen
phases. Minoxidil is known to induce cell growth factors such as VEGF.
Although the findings on the hair growth
promoting properties of Asiasari radix are interesting, the findings are
much too preliminary and too limited to be very optimistic about its
potential use in treating MPB.
Dr. Richard Lee, M.D.
www.xandrox.com
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