n organ-cultured human follicles CRH inhibited hair shaft production, induced apoptosis-driven follicle regression into catagen phase, inhibited growth of keratinocytes (which produce keratin, the main protein in hair) and promoted their death through apoptosis. CRH also increased melanin production in the anagen hair bulb.
We know that prolonged stress is bad for the hair, a possible mechanism for that is through CRH which is shown here to be bad for hair growth. It is up-regulated by stress and it’s also been shown that androgens such as testosterone affect the number of CRH receptors expressed. It’s possible that stress may lead to both increased amounts of CRH as well as an elevated sensitivity for it, and thus possibly increased hair loss as it also seems to up-regulate its own receptors.
----so does this mean that if you get yourself in a stressed state you may actually be changing the hormones relesased into you skin (and hair)? If so this would be a different mechanism for miniaturization of hair? Would this more likely explain a diffuse (including side loss)...and do you think the disposition to this type of hair loss would/could also be hereditary?