Evaluation of the effects of roxithromycin on the intrinsic gene expression in canine hair follicle cells

Macrolides, including roxithromycin (RXM), has been widely used for the treatment of neutrophilic scarring alopecia. In addition to their anti-bacterial effects, macrolides have been shown to exhibit variety of biological activities, such as the inhibition of cytokine production and immunocyte migration, however, their influence on hair follicle cell compartments has been ill-characterized. In this study, using canine hair follicles as the model of human hair follicles, we investigated the effect of RXM on the intrinsic gene expression in two major hair follicle components;bulge stem cell-enriched keratinocytes and dermal papilla (DP) cells. The presence of 10 or 20 mg/mg RXM did not inhibited the growth of canine hair follicle keratinocytes and DP cells in culture. RXM did not affected bulge biomarker gene expression in cultured bulge cell-enriched keratinocytes, while it altered the DP biomaker gene expression. Interestingly, RXM up-regulated a couple of WNT signaling pathway genes and downregulated a WNT inhibitor gene. These findings implied that RXM may influence hair follicle homeostasis in vivo.