STRATEGIES AGAINST ANDROGENETIC ALOPECIA THROUGH IN-VITRO COMPOUND SCREENING AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL HAIR FOLLICLE ENGINEERING

Abstract

The use of Minoxidil and Finasteride for Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) are often challenging in areas of safety and efficacy. Current strategies against AGA relies on identifying safer and more efficacious compounds and the culturing of 3-dimensional (3D) hair follicle-like cultures. We examined six marker constituents from a Chinese Proprietary medicine called Yang-xue Sheng-fa capsule (YSC), and screened them for activity against AGA. However, growing cells on flat 2-dimensional surfaces do not mimic 3D microenvironments, leading to a loss of cellular functions. We investigated the impact of substrate stiffness on the behaviour and expression of dermal papilla (DP) inductive genes within 3D DP aggregates. We have also demonstrated that 3D co-culture systems comprising of DP and keratinocyte composites could be used for drug screening. Overall, this thesis has explored 2D and 3D cell culture models to improve the outcomes of future drug screening against AGA.