Hair loss biology in men: Genetics, hormones including androgens and estrogens, enzymes, androgen receptors, and possibly even inflammation all seem to have a potential role to play in susceptibility to pattern hair loss. There are also some risks of other diseases developing in association with androgenetic alopecia.
Years of research have led to the conclusion that androgenetic alopecia may be a result of an alteration in the hair growth cycle and/or a premature aging of the pilosebaceous unit. The etiology of androgenetic alopecia has been defined as multifactorial or even polygenic in nature. The fact that the
Continue reading
All steroid hormones act by diffusing through the plasma membrane into the target cell and binding to specific intracellular receptors. Similarly, androgens, like other steroids, diffuse across plasma membranes and combine with a cytosolic or nuclear receptor protein. The cytosol is the internal fluid of the cell where a large
Continue reading
Research studies in patients with androgen insensitivity syndromes and 5alpha – reductase type-2 deficiencies indicate that androgenetic alopecia is induced by activation of follicular androgen receptors by dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a potent stimulator of hair loss in the scalp. Although the level of DHT may be directly dependent on the activity
Continue reading
Observations from studies in eunuchs who have low levels of testicular androgens, and males with genetic 5 alpha -reductase deficiency, who have low levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), implicate DHT as a key androgen in the pathogenesis of male pattern hair loss in men. The microsomal enzyme steroid 5 alpha -reductase
Continue reading
Androgens are a family of hormones that promote the development and maintenance of male sex characteristics. Androgens are also the mediators of terminal hair growth throughout the body, i.e., with sexual maturity they cause enlargement of vellus hairs to form terminal hair in the axilla and pubis in both sexes,
Continue reading