Topical maslinic acid enhances hair growth in mice, suggesting cilia activity may play a pivotal role.
Maslinic acid is a pentacyclic triterpene component of olive extracts. In this study, we elucidated the effects of maslinic acid on hair growth and explored its underlying mechanisms. The topical application of maslinic acid stimulates hair growth in mice comparable to minoxidil, where an acceleration in anagen induction was observed. Moreover, treatment with maslinic acid led to increased protein levels of CTNNB1 and VEGF, and upregulated the mRNA expression of trichogenic genes, including CTNNB1, ALPL, and FGF1. Additionally, crucial pathways and biological processes involved in hair growth were activated such the Wnt, Notch, MAPK, and angiogenesis. Interestingly, Iqcb1, a ciliogenesis-promoting gene, was found to be upregulated by maslinic acid, leading us to explore the potential link between hair growth and cilia activity. Notably, inhibiting cilia activity resulted in the downregulation of CTNNB1. Altogether, our study suggests that maslinic acid stimulates hair growth through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and introduces a possible mechanism involving ciliary gene activity.
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Mizushima et al. (2025) studied this question.
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