Association of Fibrosis in the Bulge Portion with Hair Follicle Miniaturization in Androgenetic Alopecia
January 2022
in “
Journal of The American Academy of Dermatology
”
TLDR Fibrosis in the bulge area of hair follicles can cause hair thinning in male pattern baldness, and drugs that inhibit fibrosis might help reverse this.
This study investigated the association between fibrosis in the bulge portion of hair follicles and hair follicle miniaturization in androgenetic alopecia (AGA). The researchers collected follicular units from 10 Chinese men with AGA and healthy individuals. They found that fibrosis-related genes were overexpressed in the bulge portion of AGA-affected hair follicles, indicating that fibrosis contributes to the disturbance of bulge stem cell conversion and leads to hair follicle miniaturization. The study suggests that fibrosis in the bulge region causes dysfunction of stem cells and inhibits hair growth, ultimately leading to AGA. The findings provide a new insight into the pathogenesis of AGA and suggest that drugs inhibiting fibrosis could be potential therapies to reverse hair miniaturization in AGA.
