Fig. 1

AP promotes hair follicle and hair shaft growth. a Experimental scheme of topical drug treatment and sampling. b Skin color of depilated skin areas at day 1 to 19 (D1, D4, D6, D8, D18 and D19) after depilation. c Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of VC-, PC- or AP-treated skin at D7 after depilation. Scale bar, 100 μm. Quantitation of hair follicle length. The average hair follicle length of 3 individual animals (n = 3) in each group was presented. The average length was calculated from 4 to 6 hairs in each animal. d Hair shafts pulled at D13 (upper panel) and D17 (lower panel) after depilation. Quantitation of hair shaft length (n = 50 hair shafts per group from 5 mice). Scale bar, 1 mm. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01