Biological clue to male baldness

Studies in US laboratories may have found a biological clue to male baldness, suggesting that testosterone and genetic factors play a key role.

The new discovery could make room for future treatments that could reverse hair thinning altogether. The results were attributed to the discovery of a protein that triggers hair loss, with drugs that target the pathway already in development; it has been reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Male sex hormone testosterone and genetic factors were found to cause hair follicles to shrink, which gradually become eventually so small that they are invisible, leading to the appearance of baldness. But researchers at the University of Pennsylvania believe they could reverse this pattern, isolating the genes which are switched on when men start to go bald.

Prof George Cotsarelis, of the Department of Dermatology, who led the research, said: "Essentially we showed that prostaglandin protein was elevated in the bald scalp of men and that it inhibited hair growth. So we identified a target for treating male-pattern baldness."

Posted by Ben Evans