Olfactory Receptor OR2AT4 Regulates Human Hair Growth

September 2018 in “ Nature Communications ”

Jérémy Chéret, Marta Bertolini, L. Ponce, Janin Lehmann, Teresa Tsai, Majid Alam, Hanns Hatt, Ralf Paus

olfactory receptor OR2AT4 hair follicles anagen phase IGF-1 Sandalore Phenirat immunohistology qRT-PCR gene silencing Sandalwood odorant

Studysummary This study found that stimulating the olfactory receptor OR2AT4 in human hair follicles with a synthetic sandalwood odorant promotes hair growth ex vivo by decreasing apoptosis and increasing IGF-1 production. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.

The study investigated the expression of the olfactory receptor OR2AT4 in human hair follicles and its impact on hair growth. It was found that OR2AT4 is expressed in the outer root sheath of hair follicles and that its activation by the synthetic sandalwood odorant Sandalore® can prolong the anagen phase of hair growth by reducing cell death and increasing IGF-1 production. In contrast, blocking OR2AT4 with Phenirat® or gene silencing resulted in reduced hair growth. The study involved hair follicles from three donors, with sample sizes ranging from 17 to 24 follicles per experiment. Techniques such as immunohistology, qRT-PCR, and gene silencing were used to analyze the effects. The findings suggest that OR2AT4 is a key regulator of hair growth and could be a target for treating hair loss. The data from the study is available in the GEO database under accession number GSE102887.

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