Clinical Utility and Validity of Minoxidil Response Testing in Androgenetic Alopecia

February 2016 in “ Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ”

Juan Ferrando, José M Mir-Bonafé

minoxidil androgenetic alopecia sulfotransferase activity assay anagen hairs topical minoxidil therapy follicular sulfotransferase activity Rogaine AGA

TLDR A hair test can accurately predict if a person with hair loss will respond to minoxidil treatment.

In 2016, Goren A and colleagues explored the clinical utility and validity of a sulfotransferase activity assay in guiding treatment for androgenetic alopecia (AGA). The researchers conducted an assay procedure on plucked anagen hairs from AGA patients, immersing them in a solution and measuring the optical absorbance at 405nm with a spectrophotometer. They found that a value of less than 0.4 absorbance units indicated low follicular sulfotransferase activity. The assay was able to predict response to 5% topical minoxidil therapy with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 71%. This test could potentially rule out nonresponders to minoxidil, reducing the side effects, emotional stress, and expense associated with using an ineffective drug.

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