- Reaction score
- 42
Below is an excerpt from the "Letter to the Editor" that Ohnemus et al sent to the medical journal; it describes the actual experiment they did showing the beneficial effect of estrogen on balding scalp hair follicles. I didn't want to spend too much time in transcribing the whole thing, so I included just the first paragraph, deleted some of the subsequent ones, then included the part about the test itself, then deleted some of the concluding material at the end, and the numerous references (obviously, I couldn't include the "Figure 1" chart which they also provided, and referred to in the text below):
Estrogens and Human Scalp Hair Growth—Still More Questions than Answers
To the Editor:
While it is undisputed that estrogens (17-b-estradiol, E2) can profoundly modulate hair growth in practically all mammalian species investigated, usually exhibiting hair growth inhibitory properties (Emmens, 1942; Williams et al, 1946; Stumpf et al, 1974; Ebling et al, 1991; Smart et al, 1999; Chanda et al, 2000), it is still rather unclear what exactly E2 administration does to human scalp hair growth.
[...]
Recently, we have also studied the effects of E2 (1 nM–1 mM, Sigma St. Louis, MO) on female occipital scalp hair follicles, and have essentially confirmed hair shaft elongation-inhibitory properties of E2, which were maximal at 1 mM (Ohnemus et al, 2003). In view of the extreme dependence of androgen effects on the exact integumental location of human hair follicles however (Ebling, 1991; Jahoda and Reynolds, 1996), we were curious to learn whether E2 effects on human scalp hair follicles are location- and/or sex-dependent. This has already been demonstrated for the E2 response of pelage hair follicles from mice and rats, which is profoundly influenced by sex and body site (Emmens, 1942; Mohn, 1958).
Therefore, we have investigated in a single, large, frontotemporal scalp skin sample (healthy male individual, no medications, 46 y; obtained with informed consent during routine facelift plastic surgery; all experiments were performed in order to the Declaration of Helsinki Principles) how E2 addition to the medium (1–100 nM, Sigma, diluted in serum-free William’s E medium, supplemented with l-glutamine, penicillin, streptomycin, insulin, and hydrocortisone) affected hair shaft elongation, anagen duration, hair follicle pigmentation and hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation in microdissected, organ-cultured male anagen VI hair follicles from the frontotemporal scalp skin region.
Surprisingly, compared to the vehicle control, the hair shaft elongation of male frontotemporal scalp hair follicles was significantly stimulated by 1–100 nM E2 already as early as 1 d after the start of organ culture, and this stimulation became even more pronounced at the end of organ culture (days 7 and 9) (Fig 1). This stimulation of hair shaft formation (which is the result of stringently coordinated proliferation and differentiation of hair matrix keratinocytes (Stenn and Paus, 2001) corresponded to a significant stimulation of hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation by 10 nM E2 at day 9 (average number of Ki-positive-cells: in the control group 14 cells (SEM 3.21) and 26 cells in the E2-treated (10 nM) group (SEM 4.38); level of significance: p<0.05, Mann–Whitney test). While no evident differences were noted by H&E or Fontana–Masson histochemistry between E2- and vehicletreated hair follicles in the hair follicle pigmentary unit or in the degree of hair follicle degeneration during organ culture (data not shown), a slight, though not statistically significant, anagen-prolonging effect of E2 was seen in E2-treated test hair follicles as compared to vehicle controls (data not shown).
Therefore, organ-cultured male frontotemporal scalp hair follicles in vitro respond to E2 treatment (by a mode of E2 administration that mimics systemic drug application) with a stimulation of both hair shaft generation and of hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation, and a tendency towards anagen prolongation, while no hair pigmentation effects are seen. This is well in line with the ill-documented, but widely shared clinical experience of topically applied E2 on the male scalp in vivo (i.e., hair growth stimulation; Schumacher-Stock, 1981) and supports the anagen-prolonging effect of E2.
Our observation in a single, yet carefully analyzed male patient* raises five basic questions that must be addressed much more systematically by subsequent work on the effects of E2 on human hair growth in order to better explain the seemingly contradictory results obtained with occipital (Kondo et al, 1990; Nelson et al, 2003) versus frontotemporal scalp hair follicles (Fig 1) [...]
*Note added in proof: The stimulation of male frontotemporal hair follicles by E2 reported here (Fig 1) was just confirmed by us using frontotemporal hair follicles from a second male patient.
Estrogens and Human Scalp Hair Growth—Still More Questions than Answers
To the Editor:
While it is undisputed that estrogens (17-b-estradiol, E2) can profoundly modulate hair growth in practically all mammalian species investigated, usually exhibiting hair growth inhibitory properties (Emmens, 1942; Williams et al, 1946; Stumpf et al, 1974; Ebling et al, 1991; Smart et al, 1999; Chanda et al, 2000), it is still rather unclear what exactly E2 administration does to human scalp hair growth.
[...]
Recently, we have also studied the effects of E2 (1 nM–1 mM, Sigma St. Louis, MO) on female occipital scalp hair follicles, and have essentially confirmed hair shaft elongation-inhibitory properties of E2, which were maximal at 1 mM (Ohnemus et al, 2003). In view of the extreme dependence of androgen effects on the exact integumental location of human hair follicles however (Ebling, 1991; Jahoda and Reynolds, 1996), we were curious to learn whether E2 effects on human scalp hair follicles are location- and/or sex-dependent. This has already been demonstrated for the E2 response of pelage hair follicles from mice and rats, which is profoundly influenced by sex and body site (Emmens, 1942; Mohn, 1958).
Therefore, we have investigated in a single, large, frontotemporal scalp skin sample (healthy male individual, no medications, 46 y; obtained with informed consent during routine facelift plastic surgery; all experiments were performed in order to the Declaration of Helsinki Principles) how E2 addition to the medium (1–100 nM, Sigma, diluted in serum-free William’s E medium, supplemented with l-glutamine, penicillin, streptomycin, insulin, and hydrocortisone) affected hair shaft elongation, anagen duration, hair follicle pigmentation and hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation in microdissected, organ-cultured male anagen VI hair follicles from the frontotemporal scalp skin region.
Surprisingly, compared to the vehicle control, the hair shaft elongation of male frontotemporal scalp hair follicles was significantly stimulated by 1–100 nM E2 already as early as 1 d after the start of organ culture, and this stimulation became even more pronounced at the end of organ culture (days 7 and 9) (Fig 1). This stimulation of hair shaft formation (which is the result of stringently coordinated proliferation and differentiation of hair matrix keratinocytes (Stenn and Paus, 2001) corresponded to a significant stimulation of hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation by 10 nM E2 at day 9 (average number of Ki-positive-cells: in the control group 14 cells (SEM 3.21) and 26 cells in the E2-treated (10 nM) group (SEM 4.38); level of significance: p<0.05, Mann–Whitney test). While no evident differences were noted by H&E or Fontana–Masson histochemistry between E2- and vehicletreated hair follicles in the hair follicle pigmentary unit or in the degree of hair follicle degeneration during organ culture (data not shown), a slight, though not statistically significant, anagen-prolonging effect of E2 was seen in E2-treated test hair follicles as compared to vehicle controls (data not shown).
Therefore, organ-cultured male frontotemporal scalp hair follicles in vitro respond to E2 treatment (by a mode of E2 administration that mimics systemic drug application) with a stimulation of both hair shaft generation and of hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation, and a tendency towards anagen prolongation, while no hair pigmentation effects are seen. This is well in line with the ill-documented, but widely shared clinical experience of topically applied E2 on the male scalp in vivo (i.e., hair growth stimulation; Schumacher-Stock, 1981) and supports the anagen-prolonging effect of E2.
Our observation in a single, yet carefully analyzed male patient* raises five basic questions that must be addressed much more systematically by subsequent work on the effects of E2 on human hair growth in order to better explain the seemingly contradictory results obtained with occipital (Kondo et al, 1990; Nelson et al, 2003) versus frontotemporal scalp hair follicles (Fig 1) [...]
*Note added in proof: The stimulation of male frontotemporal hair follicles by E2 reported here (Fig 1) was just confirmed by us using frontotemporal hair follicles from a second male patient.
Your leaps of the imagination are amusingly child-like, but you don't really have a clue what you're talking about. Go to school, and learn some science.