Mind the (Gender) Gap: Does Prolactin Exert Gender and/or Site-Specific Effects on the Human Hair Follicle?

The document from 2010 explores the complex effects of prolactin (PRL) on human hair follicles (HFs), suggesting that PRL may have different impacts on hair growth depending on gender and the location of the scalp. While PRL generally inhibits hair growth in mice and in male occipital scalp HFs, experiments indicated that high-dose PRL (400 ng ml-1) could promote hair shaft elongation in female frontotemporal scalp HFs. This promotion effect was reduced by a PRLR antagonist. The study implies that the response to PRL in human HFs is not uniform and may be influenced by factors such as gender and scalp location. The authors highlight the potential of using serum-free organ culture of HFs to further investigate these differences and suggest that variations in PRLR expression and signaling pathways could account for the observed variations. Microarray analysis revealed that genes are regulated differently by PRL in a gender- and site-specific manner, supporting the idea of tailored treatments for hair growth disorders based on these differences. However, the document does not provide the number of HFs or participants used in the study, which is crucial for evaluating the strength of the findings.