Six Novel Susceptibility Loci for Early-Onset Androgenetic Alopecia and Their Unexpected Association with Common Diseases
January 2012
in “
Faculty of Health; Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
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TLDR Early-onset hair loss is linked to Parkinson's disease and decreased fertility.
The study conducted a large-scale meta-analysis of seven genome-wide association studies involving 12,806 individuals of European ancestry to investigate early-onset androgenetic alopecia (AGA). It confirmed two known susceptibility loci on the X chromosome and chromosome 20 and identified six novel loci with genome-wide significance. Notably, a risk allele at 17q21.31, associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), was found, and a cross-sectional analysis of 568 PD cases and 7,664 controls showed that early-onset AGA cases had increased odds of subsequent PD (OR = 1.28). The AGA susceptibility alleles at this locus are on the H1 haplotype, linked to decreased fertility. A genotype risk score combining these alleles indicated that individuals in the highest risk quartile had a six-fold increased risk of early-onset AGA. The findings revealed unexpected associations between early-onset AGA, Parkinson's disease, and decreased fertility, offering insights into the pathophysiology of these conditions.
