COX-2 inhibits PGE2. PGE2 is pretty important for immune reaction (and in fact the number one trigger of inflammation), but is also utterly necessary for fever, and thus for your immune system. Without PGE2 and fever, your body cannot recover from systemwide infections. Doesn't sound too safe to me. I also heard rumours about COX-2 inhibition leading to faster skin aging. However, I don't know if that's true.
PGE2 is needed for general wound healing:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17014677
It acts as a vasodilator and also upregulates regeneration of tissue. While we do not want this behavior in our scalps as it results in follicle fibrosis, in general we need it.
On the other hand, another study (
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17537126 ) implies that scarring - instead of PERFECT wound healing - occurs because of PGE2.
Before I treat myself with PGE2 inhibitors, I need to do some more research. To me, it seems that PGE2 is pretty crucial.
Edit: Did some more research and PGE2 is often involved in diseases with cronic inflammation and fibrosis such as Crohn's disease. Are there any reports on effectiveness oh inhibiting PGE2 for treating male pattern baldness?
Edit2: This is all very confusing.
PGD-2 has been said to accelerate male pattern baldness. To battle this, people want to inhibit COX-2. However, lowering COX-2 also lowers PGE-2. PGE-2 causes inflammation and fibrosis. To battle Androgenetic Alopecia/male pattern baldness, PGE-2 should be bossted according to
this source. This is completely contradictory.
Edit3:
"Given that PGE2 exerts an inhibitory influence on type 1 immune response, which is the underlying immunopathology of AA, PGE2 analogs may prove to be invaluable in the treatment of this clinical conundrum."
Okay, so raising PGE2 is said by some studies to help prevent male pattern baldness/Androgenetic Alopecia, and by some other studies to worsen it... great. One study says that PGE2 increases inflammation, another one claims the opposite.
Edit4:
"To demonstrate that the alopecia observed in K14.COX2 mice was attributable to increased PGE2 levels, we administered the COX-2 selective inhibitor celecoxib in the diet at a dose previously shown to inhibit PGE2 synthesis in murine epidermis (11) . After 4 weeks of administration, the hair coats of the K14.COX2 animals (12 of 12) were fully restored (Fig. 2A ? , right). These findings support the suggestion that the alopecia results from improper or incomplete development of the hair shafts brought on by high PG levels within the epidermis of the K14.COX2 mice. Several animals were followed up to several months after discontinuation of treatment. The coats appeared to remain stable for at least 12 weeks, in that no apparent hair loss was observed in these animals, although it is not known whether they underwent another round of the hair growth cycle during this timeframe. By 3 months, some hair loss was noted in all of the treated animals (data not shown). Administration of celecoxib to pregnant animals and subsequent weanlings resulted in normal hair development and normal-appearing hair follicles and sebaceous glands in the weanlings that was indistinguishable from wild-type mice (Fig. 2D) . These animals were used in a subsequent tumor experiment."
So, in this study mice had high PGE2 levels. After lowering PGE2, they regrew their hair.
On the other hand, PGE2 still induces inflammation.
I don't know what to believe anymore.
What kind of COX-2 inhibitive product are you speaking of?
Edit5:
Someone else already noticed that studies on PGE2 are completely contradictory:
http://www.hairsite.com/hair-loss/forum_entry-id-100436.html
One study says that minoxidil raises PGE2, another says that minoxidil decreases PGE2.
Edit6: Here is another study saying that minoxidil does not inhibit PGE2:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3293993
All of them contradict each other. This is really confusing.
Edit7:
Study 1 says minoxidil increases PGE2:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9008235
Study 2 says minoxidil decreases PGE2:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2553835
Study 3 says minoxidil has no effect whatsoever on PGE2 and PGF2:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3278714
or at least half of the vitamin E compounds belong to tocotrienols.