Six Novel Susceptibility Loci for Early-Onset Androgenetic Alopecia and Their Unexpected Association with Common Diseases

    May 2012 in “PLOS Genetics”
    Rui Li, Felix F. Brockschmidt, Amy K. Kiefer, Hreinn Stefansson, Dale R. Nyholt, Kijoung Song, Sita H. Vermeulen, Stavroula Kanoni, Daniel Glass, Andrew M. McIntosh, Maria Dimitriou, Dawn M. Waterworth, Joyce Y. Tung, Frank Geller, Stefanie Heilmann, Axel M. Hillmer, Veronique Bataille, Sibylle Eigelshoven, Sandra Hanneken, Susanne Moebus, Christine Herold, Martin den Heijer, Grant W. Montgomery, Panos Deloukas, Nicholas Eriksson, Andrew C. Heath, Tim Becker, Patrick Sulem, Massimo Mangino, Peter Vollenweider, Tim D. Spector, George Dedoussis, Nicholas G. Martin, Lambertus A. Kiemeney, Vincent Mooser, Kari Stefansson, David A. Hinds, Markus M. Nöthen, J. Brent Richards
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    TLDR Six new genetic regions linked to early hair loss also connect to Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer, possibly leading to new treatments.
    This study identified six new genetic regions associated with early-onset androgenetic alopecia (AGA), a common form of hair loss. The study also found unexpected associations between these genetic regions and other common diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer. The researchers suggest that these findings could lead to new insights into the underlying causes of AGA and these other diseases, and potentially new treatments. The study involved a large number of participants and used genome-wide association analysis to identify the genetic regions.
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