Hair Loss May Stem From Gene Glitch

(WebMD)  Glitches in the LIPH gene may cause inherited hair loss, a study shows.

The study, published in Science, doesn't blame hair loss solely on the LIPH gene. People can lose their hair for many reasons, and other genes may also be involved.

Still, the LIPH gene stood out in a hair-loss study by researchers including Evgeny Rogaev, Ph.D., Dr.Sci.

Rogaev is a psychiatry professor specializing in genetics at University of Massachusetts medical School.

He and his colleagues studied healthy people from 50 unrelated families in Russia with a condition of inherited hair loss and slow-growing hair. Those participants were part of a much bigger genetic study of more than 350,000 Russians.

Participants with inherited hair loss and slow-growing hair had a glitch in their LIPH gene, the study shows.

The LIPH gene makes LIPH, a protein that isn't thoroughly understood but seems to play a role in normal hair formation and growth, according to Rogaev's team.

The LIPH gene glitch appears to hamper the hair-growth process and "may be a potential target" for the development of new hair-loss drugs, note Rogaev and colleagues.

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SOURCES: Kazantseva, A. Science, Nov. 10, 2006; vol 314: pp 982-985. News release, Science.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang

[society3]

NEW LIES FROM THE MEDICAL INDUSTRY????
I CAN TRACE MY HAIR LOSS BACK TO AGENT ORANGE USE IN DESERT STORM WAR. THIS IS BOGUS RESEARCH...
AGENT ORANGE PRODUCED MALFORMED CHILDREN...GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. NOT IMPRESSED WITH LIES.
MOTHER OF DOCTOR

[caseybach]

That sounds like a quote from composer John Cage. I like it.

[society3]

This is a really large made up non factual tale...
i can trace back to the Desert Storm War and tell you exactly when i started to have major hair loss in my 40's..... Remember they used chemical war fare in that war....Our soldiers came home with agent orange diseases that malformed the children they had..... this is a major cover-up issue..... and it makes me sick...to think you Practice...medicine and make such lame excuses for the realities in this world......
i went to a doctor myself for hair loss, had massive head of hair not a genetic issue....she told me women didn't loose their hair....talk to women of today that live past 60....

mother of a doctor

[random_radar]

When I pointed out that I was losing my hair, my wife said I had better not because she doesn't want to be married to a bald man. I thought that was a very interesting and humorous comment.