Simulative Evaluation of Taurine Against Alopecia Caused by Stress in Caenorhabditis elegans - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - page 250

Chapter 25
Simulative Evaluation of Taurine Against
Alopecia Caused by Stress in Caenorhabditis
elegans
Hyemin Kim , Hyunsook Chang , and Dong-Hee Lee
Abstract Hair loss or alopecia has been portrayed as a modern malady which is
aggravated by stressful conditions. Major cases of alopecia were found among
individuals of 40s-50s, nowadays, even among the 20s-30s. This study character-
ized taurine's potential against alopecia caused by chemical stress agents based on
the comparison with other commercially available anti-alopecia agents using
Caenorhabditis elegans . The criteria used are their effects on the expression of
stress markers and measurements of vital signs: lifespan comparison, progeny
number, and mobility. C . elegans showed the typical stress symptoms under treat-
ment with tunicamycin, endoplasmic reticulum stress agent. Hsp-70 protein
expression increased, while worm's lifespan and per capita progeny number
significantly decreased along with an unusually retarded movement. A positive
response was shown when worms were treated with taurine along with astressin-B
and finasteride. Between the treatments, finasteride showed better outcomes in
terms of stress-reducing effects. Taurine helped worms recover more effectively
from adverse influence of stress. In conclusion, there is strong evidence that taurine
has a great potential as anti-alopecia effect especially against the one caused by the
chemical stress. The present study implies that taurine might strongly work against
hair loss when used in combination with other commercially available anti-alopecia
agents.
H. Kim ￿ D.-H. Lee ( * )
Department of Life Sciences , University of Seoul , Seoul 130-743 , South Korea
e-mail: [e-mail]
H. Chang
Department of Child Studies , Korea Nazarene University ,
Cheonan 331-718 , South Korea