3.2 KY19382 promotes hair growth and activates the Wnt/β-catenin signaling in ex vivo-cultured mouse and rat vibrissa follicles
To determine whether KY19382 promotes hair follicle growth, we treated mouse and rat vibrissa follicles with KY19382 ex vivo . KY19382 treatment on mouse vibrissa follicles for 6 days and rat vibrissa follicles for 12 days significantly promoted vibrissa follicle elongation. (Figure 2a and supplementary figure 3a).
To confirm the effect of KY19382 on the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in mouse vibrissa follicles, we performed immunohistochemical (IHC) analyses. An increase in β-catenin and proliferation marker expression was observed in mouse and rat vibrissa follicles (Figure 2b and supplementary figure 3b, 3c). Moreover, increased ALP expression was detected in cultured mouse vibrissa follicles treated with KY19382, demonstrating the hair-inducing effect of KY19382 (Figure 2c). Correspondingly, LacZ expression was highly increased at the base of mouse vibrissa follicles from Axin2lacZ/+ mice after KY19382 treatment, showing its strong effect on Wnt/β-catenin signaling activation (Figure 2d).
In summary, β-catenin, ALP, and Axin2-LacZ expression levels were concomitantly increased at the hair bulb when treated with KY19382, suggesting that KY19382 accelerated vibrissa follicle growth and activated Wnt/β-catenin signaling ex vivo .