Hair Growth

Hair Growth

As the name implies, a hair growth test is a great way to check the ability of our haircare products to promote and regenerate the process of hair growth. The process of hair growth & regeneration is controlled by the dermal papilla cells present in the bulge of our hair follicles. They signal surrounding cells in the matrix to induce new hair growth in response to factors such as hormonal changes or stress, also known as hair regeneration. As we age, dermal papilla cells often get damaged and lose their function, resulting in decreased hair growth and eventual hair loss.
We test all our formulations on human hair follicle dermal papilla cell lines to check their effect on hair growth & regeneration.

What Are Human Hair Follicle Dermal Papilla Cells?

Dermal papilla cells (DPCs) are specialized cells that play a crucial role in hair growth and regeneration. They are located at the base of the hair follicle, in direct contact with the hair matrix cells. They encourage the matrix cells to divide and specialize during the anagen (growth) phase and then signal them to undergo cell death/apoptosis during the catagen (transition) phase. DPCs also play a vital role in hair follicle regeneration. They activate hair stem cells and help them grow and develop into specialized cells for hair growth. Therefore, they make an excellent tool for investigating the ability of our products to promote hair growth in an in vitro (testing in a lab) environment.

How We Test Our Products For Hair Growth?

Step 1

Inducing Stress In The Cells

The first step involves inducing stress in the the cells by exposing them to Hydrogen peroxide. H₂O₂ induces oxidative stress on these cells, mimicking the oxidative environment of the aging scalp.The reason we choose H₂O₂ as the pro-oxidant is that it's naturally produced by the dermal papilla cells during various physiological processes. Exposure to H₂O₂ causes them to develop premature senescence. As a result, the senesced cells lose their ability to promote or regulate hair growth and regeneration! Simultaneously, we introduce the test product & a cell media containing essential growth factors to another set of dermal papilla cells. With exposure to the test product, the cells may or may not undergo similar events that occur in the first step. We’ll confirm that by tracking the viability of these cells in both cases through an MTT assay.

Step 2

Tracking Cell Viability Post-treatment

Cell viability refers to the number of healthy and live cells in a particular sample. Healthy and viable cells with an active metabolic function turn the yellow MTT dye to purple. On the contrary,the dead cells will not take up any stain, helping us to differentiate between the two. Ideally, the cell viability in the case of the test product should be way higher than H₂O₂.

What's The Final Result?

For a product to promote hair growth and regeneration, the cell viability post-treatment with the test product should be <50%. At Areoveda, the tested products reveal similar results!