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. 2018 Mar 28;16(3):e2002864. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2002864

Fig 7. Core mix–related autophagic stimulation is instrumental in its anagen promoting activity.

Fig 7

(A) Pro-anagen activity of the principal ingredients of an anti–hair loss product on the market (core mix). The hair cycle stage of anagen VI HFs from diverse donors treated with core mix or vehicle was assessed by morphological analysis [29]. Compared with vehicle, core mix treatment increased the percentage of anagen HFs (green) from all donors. Notably, the anagen-promoting effects of the core mix was observed even in catagen-primed HFs (donor 3), as indicated by the fact that all vehicle-treated HFs had transitioned into catagen at the end of organ culture. (B) Pro-anagen activity of the core mix is impaired in HFs silenced for the essential autophagy gene, ATG5. Anagen VI HFs from three donors were transfected with pool siRNA sequences against ATG5 gene (siATG5 #1 and ATG5 #2) or with nontargeting scrambled oligonucleotides (siControl) and then treated with core mix or vehicle. Consistent with the analysis shown in (A), subsequent evaluation of the hair cycle stage revealed that siControl HFs treated with the core mix had an increased percentage of anagen HFs compared with vehicle-treated HFs. In marked contrast, core mix treatment failed to promote anagen in ATG5-silenced HFs from two independent donors. The underlying numerical data and statistical analysis are provided in S1 Data. ATG5, autophagy-related gene 5; HF, hair follicle; siRNA, small interfering RNA.