Scarring alopecia and the PPAR-gamma connection

J Invest Dermatol. 2009 May;129(5):1066-70.

Scarring alopecia and the PPAR-gamma connection.
Harries MJ, Paus R.

Department of Dermatological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.

The pathobiology of primary cicatricial ("scarring") alopecia (PCA) remains poorly understood and underinvestigated. In this issue, Karnik et al. identify a previously unsuspected player, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma), in the pathogenesis of the most frequent form of PCA, lichen planopilaris (LPP). The authors show that PPARgamma is required for maintenance of a functional epithelial stem cell compartment in murine hair follicles, that the targeted deletion of PPARgamma in the bulge/isthmus area of the hair follicle epithelium generates a skin pathology that resembles LPP, and that LPP patients show gene expression changes that indicate a defect in lipid metabolism and peroxisome biogenesis. This study invites the revisitation of many open questions in PCA pathobiology and the exploration of new avenues for future PCA management.

So what activates PPAR-gamma? Curcumin is one of them.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=18274631

This is a little off subject, except that I'm mentioning curcumin here, but check this out:

Brain Res. 2009 Feb 10.
Curcumin Blocks Brain Tumor Formation.
Purkayastha S, Berliner A, Fernando SS, Ranasinghe B, Ray I, Tariq H, Banerjee P.

Department of Chemistry; The College of Staten Island (CUNY), Staten Island, NY 10314; The CSI/IBR Center for Developmental Neuroscience; The College of Staten Island (CUNY), Staten Island, NY 10314.

Turmeric, an essential ingredient of culinary preparations of southeast Asia, contains a major polyphenolic compound, named curcumin or diferuloylmethane, which eliminates cancer cells derived from a variety of peripheral tissues. Although in vitro experiments have addressed its anti-tumor property, no in vivo studies have explored its anti-cancer activity in the brain. Oral delivery of this food component has been less effective because of its low solubility in water. We show that a soluble formulation of curcumin crosses the blood-brain barrier but does not suppress normal brain cell viability. Furthermore, tail vein injection, or more effectively, intracerebral injection through a cannula, blocks brain tumor formation in mice that had already received an intracerebral bolus of mouse melanoma cells (B16F10). While exploring the mechanism of its action in vitro we observed that the solubilized curcumin causes activation of proapoptotic enzymes caspase 3/7 in human oligodendroglioma (HOG) and lung carcinoma (A549) cells, and mouse tumor cells N18 (neuroblastoma), GL261 (glioma), and B16F10. A simultaneous decrease in cell viability is also revealed by MTT [3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assays. Further examination of the B16F10 cells showed that curcumin effectively suppresses Cyclin D1, P-NF-kB, Bcl(XL), P-Akt, and VEGF, which explains its efficacy in blocking proliferation, survival, and invasion of the B16F10 cells in the brain. Taken together, solubilized curcumin effectively blocks brain tumor formation and also eliminates brain tumor cells. Therefore, judicious application of such injectable formulations of curcumin could be developed into a safe therapeutic strategy for treating brain tumors.

With the wide spread use of cellular phones world wide, many wonder if incidents of acoustic neuromas and other brain related tumors will increase in the next few decades. Personally I give my phone about a "basketballs" length away from me except when I use it. When I do use it, I put it on speaker phone.

Anyway, curcumin can maybe give a little peace of mind with this.

IH - Which curcumin product and at what dosage would you suggest if you were attempting to activate the PPAR-gamma?

As I think you know, one derm diagnosed my hair loss as likely LPP and AGA in a combo. I would be interested in loading up on the curcumin to see if I see a scalp difference.

When the seasons changed here in NY I had an outbreak of inflammation that I was able to control, but for a few days it was rough.

I've been taking one a day of that Jarrow Curcumin 95 500mg and had been taking it when the inflammation returned. Should I up my dose or switch products to see if there's a difference?

Thanks in advance.

hadrion - For experimentation you might try switching to Life Extension's version of BCM-95. Just one capsule per day (with a meal).

You may notice that Jarrow suggests a few more capsules per day than Life Extension's.

IH -- I still have another bottle of the Jarrow unopened, so I'm going to up the dose a bit and see if I see any kind of change. I'll order the LEF one next and I'll be sure to report in here.

On a side note, I had told you in a earlier that I was going to give artemisin a try. I did and I drew a conclusion that it actually encouraged inflammation in my scalp. When I had the recent outbreak I was still using it. I dropped it and w/in the days the visible inflammation decreased.

hadrion - That's interesting. Artemisinin has been used topical for some inflammatory skin disorders such as psoriasis, etc.

In fact it was compared to a topical corticosteroid and it was found to beat most and match the potency of the strongest forms.

Maybe it was a temporary reaction--sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. Or maybe it's not right for you.

Yeah. I was definitely confused since I was excited about using it.

When I saw the inflammation return I figured the first thing to do was to drop the most recent thing I had added which was the artemisinin.

After a few days of not using it the inflammation went down so I chalked it up to that.

Now I also noticed that I had this outbreak as the seasons changed and I'm wondering if my bouts of inflammation are more allergy related than anything. I don't know.