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Scientists Solve Mystery of Male Pattern Baldness

White males' risk of baldness seven times higher than other groups

October 13, 2008

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Men who blame their grandfathers for the baldness are probably right. Scientists have in fact, uncovered a genetic link between the follically challenged.

About a third of all men are affected by male pattern baldness by age 45.

The condition's social and economic impact is considerable: expenditures for hair transplants in the United States alone exceeded $115 million in 2007, while global revenues for medical therapy for male-pattern baldness recently surpassed $405 million.

Male pattern baldness is the most common form of baldness, where hair is lost in a well-defined pattern beginning above both temples, and results in a distinctive M-shaped hairline. Estimates suggest more than 80 percent of cases are hereditary.

Researchers at McGill University, King's College London and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. have identified two genetic variants in white men that together produce an astounding sevenfold increase in the risk of male pattern baldness. Their results are published in the journal Nature Genetics.

The researchers conducted a genome-wide association study of 1,125 white men who had been assessed for male pattern baldness. They found two previously unknown genetic variants on chromosome 20 that substantially increased the risk of male pattern baldness. They then confirmed these findings in an additional 1,650 men.

"I would presume male pattern baldness is caused by the same genetic variation in non-caucasians," said Dr. Brent Richards of McGill University's Faculty of Medicine and the affiliated Jewish General Hospital, "but we haven't studied those populations, so we can't say for certain."

Though the researchers consider their discovery to be a scientific breakthrough, they caution that it does not mean a treatment or cure for male pattern baldness is imminent.

"We've only identified a cause," Richards said. "Treating male pattern baldness will require more research. But, of course, the first step in finding a way to treat most conditions it is to first identify the cause."

"Early prediction before hair loss starts may lead to some interesting therapies that are more effective than treating late stage hair loss," added Dr. Tim Spector, of King's College and director of the TwinsUK cohort study.

Researchers have long been aware of a genetic variant on the X chromosome that was linked to male pattern baldness, Richards said.

"That's where the idea that baldness is inherited from the mother's side of the family comes from," he explained. "However it's been long recognized that that there must be several genes causing male pattern baldness. Until now, no one could identify those other genes. If you have both the risk variants we discovered on chromosome 20 and the unrelated known variant on the X chromosome, your risk of becoming bald increases sevenfold.

"What's startling is that one in seven men have both of those risk variants. That's 14 per cent of the total population!"

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