Another "baldness gene"

Researchers from three American universities under the leadership of Angela M. Christiano have discovered another "baldness gene" – the cause of hereditary hypotrichosis, a disease in which hair grows poorly due to follicle dystrophy, thinning and falling out. In search of the cause of this disease, scientists analyzed the hereditary information of members of three families with hereditary hypotrichosis from Pakistan and Italy.

In all patients, a point mutation was detected in the APCDD1 gene located on chromosome 18, leading to the replacement of one amino acid in the corresponding protein, which in especially large quantities is part of the membranes of hair follicle cells. Previous studies of this gene have shown that it is involved in the development of other forms of baldness, in particular focal and androgenic alopecia.

As it turned out, a "malfunction" in the APCDD1 protein disrupts the work of the Wnt signaling pathway, which is involved in the regulation of the formation and development of various organs and tissues. It has already been shown that this signaling pathway regulates the processes of hair growth and loss in mice, but the authors of the new study found the presence of a similar mechanism in humans for the first time.

Despite the fact that hereditary hypotrichosis and ordinary baldness are not the same thing at all, the authors of the study hope that the results obtained will allow the development of non–hormonal drugs that prevent hair loss by regulating the Wnt signaling pathway. The only drug that helps against the most common form of male pattern baldness, blocks the metabolism of male sex hormones and has undesirable side effects.

Article by Yutaka Shimomura et al. APCDD1 is a novel Wnt inhibitor mutated in hereditary hypotrichosis simplex published in the journal Nature.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on Science Daily: New Gene in Hair Loss Identified by Columbia-Led Research Team16.04.2010