October 2008
A third of men will suffer from baldness by the age of 45 years, a hereditary phenomenon whose origin was unknown and is dependent on a combination of factors. One of them has been identified.
Usually due to an imbalance in the rate of male hormones (androgens) in blood, androgenic baldness , the hereditary characteristic is recognized in 80% of cases. It does not directly impact on the health of men who are affected before age 45. Yet the social and economic repercussions are considerable.
Globally, sales of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics to combat or mitigate the effects, generates an income of $ 405 million, while Americans spent in the year 2007 over 115 million for hair transplantation treatments . It is therefore understandable that research in this area is likely to interest a large number of scientists, but also pressed the pharmaceutical industry to develop treatments against baldness increasingly solicited by patientèle.
A better understanding of the causes of baldness
Vincent Mooser of GlaxoSmithKline, Brent Richards of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University and Jewish General Hospital affiliated with McGill, and Tim Spector, of King’s College, have recently begun to research, and collaborate with other scientists in Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Their findings were recently published in Nature Genetics.
Science already knew long before the influence of a genetic variant affecting the X chromosome on the appearance of androgenetic baldness was known. According to researchers, the transmission of hereditary characteristics was transmitted by the mother. But it was also admitted that several genes were responsible for its occurrence.
The idea of the research team was to conduct a study of association at genome level, among a sample of 1125 men in whom this type of disorder was diagnosed. Two new genetic variants, whose relationship did not previously appeare with androgenetic baldness, have been identified on chromosome 20. Scientists have confirmed these observations with a second sample of 1650 men selected according to the same criteria, establishing that these variants increased to determine the risk of baldness.
Too early for treatment
Researchers, however, are talking down their discovery. If it allows, for the first time, them establish a formal link between a combination of genetic variants and the appearance of androgenetic baldness , it is considered a scientific breakthrough and not as a preliminary to a new form of treatment. Because this is basic research to determine the cause of a problem, it is a preliminary step that is essential to the development of any curative action.
“We have only identified a cause. The treatment of androgenetic baldness will require more research. However, it goes without saying that the first step towards finding a treatment, in most cases is first to determine the cause of the problem, “said Brent Richards, a leader of the research team .
“We now know that if a man has both genetic variants we discovered on chromosome 20 and the independently known variant on the X chromosome, the risk of baldness is seven times higher, concludes the researcher. More alarming still, one man in seven has both types of risk variants, or 14 percent of the total population
Tags: Baldness