Platelet factor 4 inhibits human hair follicle growth and promotes androgen receptor expression in human dermal papilla cells

Ke Sha; Mengting Chen; Fangfen Liu; San Xu; Ben Wang; Qinqin Peng; Yiya Zhang; Hongfu Xie; Ji Li; Zhili Deng

doi:10.7717/peerj.9867

Platelet factor 4 inhibits human hair follicle growth and promotes androgen receptor expression in human dermal papilla cells

PeerJ. 2020 Sep 4:8:e9867. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9867. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ke Sha^{1

2

3

4

5}, Mengting Chen^{1

2

3}, Fangfen Liu¹, San Xu^{1

2}, Ben Wang¹, Qinqin Peng^{1

2}, Yiya Zhang^{1

2}, Hongfu Xie^{1

2

3

4}, Ji Li^{1

2

3

4}, Zhili Deng^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
² National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Molecular Radiation Oncology Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Organ Injury, Aging and Regenerative Medicine of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁵ Xiangya International Academy of Translational Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been reported recently as a potential therapeutic approach for alopecia, such as androgenetic alopecia, but the exact mechanisms and effects of specific components of this recipe remain largely unknown. In this study, we identified that platelet factor 4 (PF4), a component of PRP, significantly suppressed human hair follicle growth and restrained the proliferation of human dermal papilla cells (hDPCs). Furthermore, our results showed that PF4 upregulated androgen receptor (AR) in human dermal papilla cells in vitro and via hair follicle organ culture. Among the hair growth-promoting and DP-signature genes investigated, PF4 decreased the expression of Wnt5a, Wnt10b, LEF1, HEY1 and IGF-1, and increased DKK1 expression, but did not affect BMP2 and BMP4 expression. Collectively, Our data demonstrate that PF4 suppresses human hair follicle growth possibly via upregulating androgen receptor signaling and modulating hair growth-associated genes, which provides thought-provoking insights into the application and optimization of PRP in treating hair loss.

Keywords: Androgen receptor; Dermal papilla cells; Hair follicle; Hair loss; Platelet factor 4; Platelet-rich plasma.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.11828610.v1

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81773351, No. 91749114, No. 81874251, No. 81703149, No. 81602789). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.