Fucoidan treats chemotherapy-induced alopecia and helps cyclophosphamide treat tumors.

Chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) represents one of the most common side effects of cancer treatment. Currently, scalp cooling systems are utilized to treat CIA, but their safety and effectiveness remain limited. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of fucoidan on CIA and to elucidate the possible mechanism of fucoidan in treating CIA. The results showed that when the dosage of fucoidan was 100 mg/kg·d, it could effectively alleviate CIA induced by cyclophosphamide and promote hair recovery. Altering the dosage affected the therapeutic effect. A lower dosage (50 mg/kg·d) could not effectively prevent the hair from falling off, and the regrown hair was sparse, while an increased dosage led to slow hair growth, although the hair regrown was thick and black. It was also found that with the increase in dosage, key CIA proteins P53 and Fas were down-regulated. However, the cyclin was decreased when the dose was too high. In addition, fucoidan proved beneficial to cyclophosphamide treatment, which further inhibited tumor growth, aggravated tumor necrosis, and reduced the side effects of cyclophosphamide, especially at high doses. These results demonstrate that fucoidan has a therapeutic effect on CIA and does not compromise the effect of chemotherapy.