Male pattern baldness is largely X-linked, research shows

London, October 13: In mid twenties and started balding? Probably your father’s at fault…or maybe his father, or maybe his! Researchers from England and Germany claim to have discovered a new balding gene which a son may inherit from his father, or forefathers.

Always tempted to get a hairpiece, a hair transplant or put some magic hair growth on the shining dome, bald men spend a fortune on pricey remedies. Unfortunately, hair loss may not be easy to remedy, dermatologists comment.

However, the new discovery could lead to new treatments, not only for baldness, but for the other serious health conditions that come with hair loss, researchers aver.

Nearly 1,000 volunteers with and without male-pattern baldness were enrolled for the new study. DNA analysis revealed that two stretches of the genome were linked to baldness in volunteers. Together they make a man seven times more likely to start balding prematurely.

While large studies in 2005 and 2007 laid stress on the maternal line in the inheritance of male pattern baldness, the androgen receptor gene (female X chromosome), the newly discovered variant, the chromosome 20, passed from father to son and showed strong associations with region Xq11-q12 on the X-chromosome.

Since it is still not clear what the genesdefine do, more research is needed to figure out how these genes influence the risk of baldness, researchers said.

"We've only identified a cause. Treating male pattern baldness will require more research. But, of course, the first step in finding a way to treat most conditions is to first identify the cause," Dr Brent Richards, researcher at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said.

"Early prediction before hair loss starts may lead to some interesting therapies that are more effective than treating late stage hair loss" he said.

The condition referred to as male pattern baldness is typically characterized by hair loss from the temples and the crown. The receding hair line is often caused by an increase in a chemical called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, which makes hair follicles produce thinner and thinner hairs until the follicles die off.

Of the 80 percent cases of male pattern baldness that are hereditary, an estimated 14 percent of men are believed to carry both gene variants, researchers reveal.

The results of the study feature in the latest issue of the journal Nature Genetics.