GENETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY DIFFERENCE IN MALE AND FEMALE BALDING

[chewbaca]

Messenger A.G., Birch M.P. Department of Dermatology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK

Early investigators proposed that both male and female balding are due to a single gene. More recently it has been suggested that balding is a polygenic trait. However, two factors have complicated the study of the genetics of balding. Firstly, in both sexes the phenotype is age-dependent and may only be fully expressed in the elderly. Secondly, it is not clear whether female pattern balding is the same entity as male balding. To address these problems we have studied family histories of balding in a large cohort of men and women with a wide range of ages and drawn from the same population.

As in previous studies we found that balding is more common in the fathers of young balding men than in the population at large (RR 1.35). We also found that about 15% of men fail to develop balding by age 70 and that these men show a strong paternal history of non-balding (RR 1.78). Analysis of the frequencies of balding in elderly fathers and brothers suggests that male pattern balding is an autosomal dominant trait. However, the low frequency of non-balding in elderly men meant that the numbers were too small to confirm the converse, i.e. that non-balding is a recessive characteristic. Family studies in women confirmed the paternal influence on balding in their brothers but there was little or no paternal contribution to female hair loss. In contrast, there was a strong maternal influence on hair loss in women but not in men. Female hair density showed a Gaussian distribution in the population indicating that it is a multifactorial trait.

These findings indicate that male and female patterns of balding are genetically different although there may be a ‘final common pathway’ of follicular senescence. If, as our results suggest, the predisposition to male balding is due to a single gene it may be more rewarding to study elderly men than young men with premature balding.

http://www.ehrs.org/conferenceabstracts ... senger.htm

 

[chewbaca]

bRYAN, PLS HELP US MAKE SENSE OF THIS ARTICLE:

Does this article say that for males , male pattern baldness is stongly influenced by by paternal genes?

 

[nooc]

Hm.

Well, of my father and two brothers, I at age 36, and the only of us balding. No one one my father's side had or has male pattern baldness. But my grandfather and uncle on my mother's side both had male pattern baldness. So what does that mean?

 

[chewbaca]

Hm.

Well, of my father and two brothers, I at age 36, and the only of us balding. No one one my father's side had or has male pattern baldness. But my grandfather and uncle on my mother's side both had male pattern baldness. So what does that mean?

it means u might have inherited it from your mum's side...This is what i strongly suspected..that for males Telogen Effluvium inheritance is from mum's side...cant confirm for sure unless more ppl here post theories and evidences to support my claim..

 

[arjun17]

to nooc

hi nooc,
your two brothers most likely got your dad's non-male pattern baldness genes, while you were not so lucky and probably got your maternal grandad's male pattern baldness genes. Can you tell us if your hair (in texture, color, and hairline) resembles that of your father's side or your mother's side? Also, did your grandad and uncle start to go bald around the same time as you?
My opinion is that balding is autosomal i.e. it can come either from the father's side or mother's side.
Cheers,
Arjun

 

[nooc]

Growing up, I had thick thick hair like my dad and my paternal grandfather. Being the oldest and the "fashionable" one, I had the "eighties-hair" in my twenties. I do remember one conversation from that era about people losing their hair, but my girlfriend at the time saying that would probably never happen to me, because I had so much hair. Famous last words.

I don't know when my maternal grandfather or uncle started to lose it, except that I was looking at a family portrait from 25 years ago when my uncle was probably about 40. He was looking about a Norwood 4, but not diffuse thinning.

I'm 36 and more of a Norwood 3 with diffuse thinning. So, I'm probably right on track with both of them.