ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Physiol.

Sec. Skin Physiology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1556431

Prostaglandin F2α stimulates the growth of human intermediate hair follicles in ex vivo organ culture with potential clinical relevance

Provisionally accepted
  • 1St Andrew's Centre for Plastic Surgery & Burns, Chelmsford, United Kingdom
  • 2University of Suleimani, Kurdistan region, Iraq
  • 3University College Dublin, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

BACKGROUND: Hair plays a crucial role in social and sexual communication; hair disorders such as alopecia or hirsutism can therefore cause psychological distress. Current treatments are limited by unwanted side effects and a lack of understanding of hair follicle (HF) regulation, particularly in miniaturised intermediate or vellus-like follicles; the clinical targets in hair loss disorders. The discovery that bimatoprost, a prostamide F2α analogue, stimulates eyelash growth suggest a possible role for other prostanoids in hair growth.OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of the naturally occurring prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) on human intermediate HF growth, comparing the effects on matched terminal and intermediate follicles. Furthermore, to determine the involvement of PGF2α receptors (FP) and their location within both these HF types.METHODS: Matched human female pre‐auricular facelift skin HFs were cultured with PGF2α alone or in combination with an FP antagonist for 9 days. To confirm FP gene expression in both terminal and intermediate lower HF bulbs, RT-PCR was performed using specific FP primers, confirmed by sequence analysis. Immunohistochemistry was conducted using frozen sections to locate the FP protein in HF components.RESULTS: PGF2α (100 nm) stimulated terminal HF fibre growth by 4.93% (p=0.019) with a greater effect (10.03% (p<0.001) stimulation) on intermediate HFs. PGF2α stimulation significantly prolonged anagen (the growth phase of the hair cycle) duration in both HF types and to similar extent. These increases in hair fibre elongation were blocked by the receptor (FP) antagonist in both terminal and intermediate follicles. RT-PCR confirmed FP gene expression and immunohistochemistry located FP protein in the dermal papilla and connective tissue sheath of both intermediate and terminal HFs.CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate, for the first time, that PGF2α stimulates human HF growth in organ culture via a receptor‐driven mechanism, probably directly affecting the follicles’ regulatory dermal papilla function. The greater response of intermediate, compared to matched terminal, HFs suggests potential future clinical significance for medical conditions such as alopecia, or insufficient beard growth, and promoting hair growth in 'relatively hairless' donor graft skin or transplant follicles after elective, trauma or burn injury surgical reconstruction.

Keywords: hair loss (alopecia), Prostaglandin (PG F2a), Intermediate hair follicles, Balding or thinning hair, Plastic Surgery & Cosmetic Surgery, Hair regeneration, Hair Loss Treatment, Dermatology

Received: 06 Jan 2025; Accepted: 20 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Miranda, Khidhir and Tobin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Ben Miranda, St Andrew's Centre for Plastic Surgery & Burns, Chelmsford, United Kingdom
Desmond John Tobin, University College Dublin, Dublin, Dublin 4, County Dublin, Ireland

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