Research results raise the prospect of the pharmacological and nutritional use of glutamic acid in the treatment of dermatoses
In the latest edition of the periodical Scientific Reports, from the Nature group, researchers from the Faculty of Nursing (Fenf) and collaborators published an article in which an important part of the action of a neurotransmitter, glutamic acid, on the skin was revealed.
Glutamic acid is the main excitatory neurotransmitter acting in both the brain and peripheral tissues. Abnormal distribution of glutamic acid receptors occurs in hyperproliferative skin conditions such as psoriasis and skin regeneration; however, the biological function of glutamic acid in the skin remains unclear.
When using approaches ex vivo, in vivo e in silico, researchers have shown that exogenous glutamic acid promotes hair growth and keratinocyte proliferation. Topical application of glutamic acid decreased the expression of genes related to apoptosis in the skin and increased cell viability and proliferation in human keratinocyte cultures. Furthermore, they also demonstrated the existence of a new cutaneous signaling pathway mediated by this neurotransmitter that controls the proliferation of keratinocytes and hair follicle. Thus, glutamic acid appears as a component of the peripheral nervous system that acts to control skin cell growth.
"These results raise the prospect of the pharmacological and nutritional use of glutamic acid in the treatment of dermatoses", explains Carlos Poblete Jara, a student who recently graduated from the Postgraduate Program in Nursing and author of the research carried out at the Cell Signaling Laboratory of the Centro de Research on Obesity and Comorbidities (Cepid-OCRC) from Unicamp.
In addition to Carlos P Jara and Natália Ferreira Mendes, recently graduated from PPG-Enf, two undergraduate students also signed the article, Beatriz de Andrade Berti and Renan de Medeiros Bezerra, supervised by Prof. Dr. Eliana Pereira de Araujo. The other researchers are part of the co-authorship of the work: Daiane Fátima Engel, Ariane Maria Zanesco, Gabriela Freitas Pereira de Souza, Julia de Toledo Bagatin, Silvya Stuchi Maria-Engler, Joseane Morari, Willian H Velander (University of Nebraska) and Lício A Velloso.
Read the full article Glutamic acid promotes hair growth in mice.
original article published on the Unicamp Faculty of Nursing website.
