The OM and YW human hair lysates obtained from two different donors inhibited the proliferation of human melanoma cells and other types of human cancer cells <i>in vitro</i>.

<p>The viable cell count was evaluated in 7-day cultures of MeW186 melanoma cells plated after 3 passages at 5×10³ cells/well with or without the hair lysates (a); 4-day cultures of urinary bladder cancer T24 cells plated at 5×10³ cells/well (b); 4-day cultures of the B cell lymphoma line Namalwa plated at 120×10³ cells/well (c); and 4-day cultures of the B cell lymphoma line DOHH-2 plated at 120×10³ cells/well (d). The lysates were added at a concentration of 0.1% (m/v). Fresh medium with or without the lysate was added to the MeW186 melanoma cell cultures on days 0, 3, 4, and 5. Medium with or without the lysate was changed once daily for cultures of the urinary bladder cancer T24 cells and for cultures of lymphoma cells. The bars represent the mean values ± s.d. of the viable cell count in triplicate cultures. Groups of cultures were compared using the LSD ANOVA test. The profiles of the CFSE dilution in DOHH-2 cells indicated that the lymphoma cells divided in the presence of the lysate, although the yield of viable cells was substantially reduced in comparison to cells cultured in the absence of the lysate (d); the representative histograms for cultures shown in Fig. 2d. A comparison of the proliferation indices showing that both the OM lysate (f) and the YW lysate (g) inhibited the proliferation of various melanoma lines generated from different patients. The proliferation index was calculated as the proportion of the mean viable cell count following culture to the viable cell number at the beginning of the culture.