New bald gene found

American scientists have identified a gene associated with hair loss which may lead towards new types of treatment for baldness.

The gene, called APCDD1 is behind a progressive form of hair loss which starts in childhood, known as hereditary hypotrichosis simplex.

This hair loss disorder is caused by hair follicle miniaturization, the same key feature of male pattern bladness. This process causes hair follicles to shrink or narrow, and the once thick head hair is replaced by thin, fine, fuzzy hair.

The team from Columbia University Medical Centre discovered the gene by analysing data from families in Italy and Pakistan. They found a common mutation in the APCDD1 gene, located in a specific region on chromosome 18.

Past studies have implicated this chromosome region in other forms of hair loss, including male pattern baldness. The newly discovered mutation may also be involved in other types of hair loss, say the reserachers.

The gene had previously been shown to be involved in controlling hair growth by turning on or off a signaling pathway in mice. But this is the first time the pathway - known as the Wnt signalling pathway - has been shown to be involved in hair growth in humans.

"We have at last made a connection between Wnt signalling and human hair disease that is highly significant," said lead researcher Dr. Angela Christiano. "We have years of beautiful data in our field about hair growth in mice, but this is the first inroad into showing that the same pathway is critical in human hair growth. This is the first mutation in a Wnt inhibitor that deregulates the pathway in a human hair disease."

"Furthermore, these findings suggest that manipulating the Wnt pathway may have an effect on hair follicle growth – for the first time, in humans," said Dr. Christiano. "And unlike commonly available treatments for hair loss that involve blocking hormonal pathways, treatments involving the Wnt pathway would be non-hormonal, which may enable many more people suffering from hair loss to receive such therapies."

Dr. Christiano and her team are now working to understand the complex genetic causes of other forms of hair loss including alopecia areata, with the hope of eventually developing new, effective treatments for these conditions.

The research is published in Nature and was undertaken by teams at Columbia, Rockefeller and Stanford Universities in the USA.

This article was published on Thu 15 April 2010