Can someone summarize our current understanding of hairloss?

abcdefg · Oct 1, 2007

Can someone just briefly explain maybe some of the most recent research on male pattern baldness? I know lots of people post many studies but a lot of this is never pieced together to form theories. One question I have is how does the immune system factor into male pattern baldness exactly? Also there was a study on a smad-7 pathway that seems very important. Can someone just maybe explain where the current research and studies are right now? Does tgf -beta relate to smad -7 molecular pathways?

Now i realize im asking a very broad general question but maybe someone like brian or docj can just briefly explain how some of the most important studies relate to each other or what future treatments we might see.

docj077 · Oct 1, 2007

I've been looking at I haven't seen a whole lot of "new" research lately.

As for the Smad-7 question, that particular molecule is elevated in response to TGF-beta signaling and is actually a molecule that is supposed to keep that particular cascade in check through negative feedback. Unfortunately, there are too many feed-forward mechanisms for Smad-7 to really make a difference and it's upregulation simply causes the normal skin differentiation programming to change from creating hair follicles into creating sebaceous glands.