moxsom
Established Member
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So some individuals don't see many (or any) effect in taking any amounts of finasteride. The reason for this is clearly multi-factorial but I think this 2005 paper gives some explanation as to why:
Effectiveness of Finasteride on Patients with Male Pattern Baldness Who Have Different Androgen Receptor Gene Polymorphism
http://uploading.com/files/26842d77/FinCAGrepeats.pdf/
Basically the amount of CAG repeats in the AR gene is directly correlated the sensitivity of the androgen receptor. The less amount of repeats the more sensitive the androgen receptor (sans AIS - androgen insensitivity syndrome). Longer the repeats the less sensitive. There a plethora of diseases dealing with variation in the number of repeats (feel free to google), so this is pretty important for an evolutionary perspective.
CAG repeats code for a polyglutamine tract and effects the sensitivity for ligands (testosterone/DHT) through various mechanisms (not totally implicated).
I for one don't find finasteride very useful in controlling my Androgenetic Alopecia, as it's steadily been getting worse for the 5 years I've been on it. I would love to sequence my AR gene to see how many CAG repeats I have exactly.
As well another study found that differences were correlated to Acne, Androgenetic Alopecia, and hirsutism. (I also personally had severe acne vulgaris at the onset of puberty)
http://0-www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov....eats alopecia acne
Results: In normal men and women controls, a range of 12 to 29 trinucleotide repeats was found, with men having 22 +/- 4 (M 6 SD), women 21 +/- 3. Men with Androgenetic Alopecia had 19 +/- 3, whereas women with Androgenetic Alopecia had 17 +/- 3. Men with acne had 21 +/- 3, whereas women had 20+/- 3; men with Androgenetic Alopecia and acne had 18 +/- 4; and women with hirsutism had 16 +/- 3. Women with a combination of at least two disorders also had 16 +/- 3 trinucleotide repeats.
Effectiveness of Finasteride on Patients with Male Pattern Baldness Who Have Different Androgen Receptor Gene Polymorphism
http://uploading.com/files/26842d77/FinCAGrepeats.pdf/
Basically the amount of CAG repeats in the AR gene is directly correlated the sensitivity of the androgen receptor. The less amount of repeats the more sensitive the androgen receptor (sans AIS - androgen insensitivity syndrome). Longer the repeats the less sensitive. There a plethora of diseases dealing with variation in the number of repeats (feel free to google), so this is pretty important for an evolutionary perspective.
CAG repeats code for a polyglutamine tract and effects the sensitivity for ligands (testosterone/DHT) through various mechanisms (not totally implicated).
I for one don't find finasteride very useful in controlling my Androgenetic Alopecia, as it's steadily been getting worse for the 5 years I've been on it. I would love to sequence my AR gene to see how many CAG repeats I have exactly.
As well another study found that differences were correlated to Acne, Androgenetic Alopecia, and hirsutism. (I also personally had severe acne vulgaris at the onset of puberty)
http://0-www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov....eats alopecia acne
Results: In normal men and women controls, a range of 12 to 29 trinucleotide repeats was found, with men having 22 +/- 4 (M 6 SD), women 21 +/- 3. Men with Androgenetic Alopecia had 19 +/- 3, whereas women with Androgenetic Alopecia had 17 +/- 3. Men with acne had 21 +/- 3, whereas women had 20+/- 3; men with Androgenetic Alopecia and acne had 18 +/- 4; and women with hirsutism had 16 +/- 3. Women with a combination of at least two disorders also had 16 +/- 3 trinucleotide repeats.