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Incoming! New Hope in the Battle Over Baldness?

October 13, 2008 1:54 PM

By Kirk Fernandes, ABC News Medical Unit

Genetics researchers are getting closer to the heart of a problem that has plagued millions of men (and women) for thousands of years -- male-pattern baldness.

Chuckle as you might, it's an issue that's close to my scalp. 

For several years a war has played out upon my skull. I've watched over time the retreat of the front lines. At the same time, invaders have been encroaching from the rear -- a sneak attack I only recently noticed after getting a rare photographic glimpse of the back of my head.

I may soon have to call for reinforcements -- the minoxidil contingent from the Rogaine region.  But I suspect I'll wait until the last minute, until defeat is certain … because I refuse to admit the sad truth of what is to come.

There will be no victors in this war; all that will remain is an oval flatland of dry, denuded skin. 

But there is some news of hope from the forward command post -- the capture of an enemy gene-ral.

A group of European and Canadian researchers, along with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline in Pennsylvania announced Sunday the discovery of a gene that increases the risk of male-pattern baldness. (A second group of researchers from Germany and Australia, working independently, also announced the same find.)

This isn't the first gene to show an association to the condition. A previously known gene on the X chromosome with a role in hormone reception has already been associated with male-pattern baldness. In fact, it's often used as an example in biology class of a gene that men inherit from their mother, because the single X chromosome in a man comes from his mother.  (And that's also why your father's head of hair gives you little information about whether you're prone to male-pattern baldness; your mother's father is a better person to watch.)

In any case, the researchers report in Nature Genetics that when a person has certain variations of both the known gene and the newly discovered one, his (or her) risk of male-pattern baldness increases sevenfold. In fact, the study showed that among men with both gene variants, 14 percent are at "very high risk of androgenic alopecia" -- the fancy phrase for male-pattern baldness -- and 50 percent are at "moderate risk," said Tim Spector, one of the researchers and a genetics professor at King's College London, via e-mail.

In terms of the relative risk, if you have neither of the two genetic variants you can be about 95 percent sure you won't suffer the hairless fate, added Spector.

They made this determination by examining 1,125 men as part of the CoLaus project in Lausanne, Switzerland -- a study of genetic factors related to cardiovascular and metabolic problems in whites.  (There is some correlation between male-pattern baldness and these types of disorders.)

Still, there's no absolute certainty in these numbers … they're probabilities. And that's one of the problems with genetics research and gene variants, they rarely give us the whole picture of what's going on inside our bodies. And because the study sample included just white men, it's not exactly clear whether the results can be applied to other ethnicities.

The fact of the matter is that we see these kinds of gene discoveries all the time. They come in two varieties: Researchers have found the first gene associated with (insert disease here), or, researchers have found another gene that also seems to play a role in (insert disease here).

These developments are often newsworthy, but it's always important to understand that any discovery is just a step on a staircase scientists climb all the time in order to advance our knowledge of health and medicine. It's not going to effect immediate change.

Sure, younger men could now assess the potential risk of future male-pattern baldness by getting tested for the genes. But then what?

The scientists do speculate in the report that if they can figure out what this newly discovered gene variant does and how it works there might be hope for gene therapy drugs applied directly to the scalp.

But it would be "many years before novel therapies," said Spector.

So, for now, the hirsute hostility continues atop my noggin, and the noggins of so many others. All we can hope for is that our follicles will stand their ground like Spartans of the scalp.

October 13, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

User Comments

Posted by: MBROWN | Oct 13, 2008 4:43:07 PM

Posted by: Cat Mitt | Oct 13, 2008 5:42:48 PM

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Posted by: MedforDummies | Oct 13, 2008 8:26:26 PM

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