Topic: Baldness genes found.

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

Researchers at McGill University, King's College London and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. have identified two genetic variants in caucasians that together produce an astounding sevenfold increase the risk of male pattern baldness. Their results will be published Oct. 12 in the journal Nature Genetics.

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 transplantation in the United States alone exceeded $115 million (U.S.) 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 per cent of cases are hereditary.

This study was conducted by Dr. Vincent Mooser of GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Brent Richards of McGill University's Faculty of Medicine and the affiliated Jewish General Hospital (and formerly of King's College), and Dr. Tim Spector of King's College. Along with colleagues in Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the researchers conducted a genome-wide association study of 1,125 caucasian 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 caucasian men.

I'm not worried about this but some of you might find it of personal interest.

[Centurus]

I don't have to worry.  I'm not a white guy.   

[Nemesis]

I don't have to worry.  I'm not a white guy.   

I'm not worried either. I have hair like my father and his father before him.  Based on that history I should develop a small bald spot sometime in my late 70s  (maybe 80's as it seems to be later in each generation). 

[Lieutenant_Q]

I'm a white guy who has baldness running in the family, but I could care less.  When it starts to fall out, I'll simply shave it all.

[Brush Wolf]

Baldness doesn't run on either side of my family. Grey hair though does which for me started showing up about 20 years ago. I am not going to dye it and if someone doesn't like it they can go to blazes for all I care.

[Nemesis]

I have friends who began going gray at 19 and who by their behaviour invited teasing.  Their attempts to tease me back failed on two counts, 1/ I don't care 2/ My fathers side who I take after in the hair department doesn't get significantly grey until shortly before they begin to bald, namely in their late 70s. 

Naturally they try and claim that they are going gray for a common reason, namely me.  Of course it isn't my fault.   

[Corbomite]

I don't have to worry.  I'm not a white guy.   

I'm not worried either. I have hair like my father and his father before him.  Based on that history I should develop a small bald spot sometime in my late 70s  (maybe 80's as it seems to be later in each generation). 

Actually you should be looking at your mother's father as the gene is transmitted by female offspring. I'm getting a little thin in places. I always figured I'd just shave my head if it got to look too bad. Unless they come up with a one time treatment that doesn't involve any kind of surgery and lasts the rest of your life, I'm not interested.

[Nemesis]

Actually you should be looking at your mother's father as the gene is transmitted by female offspring. I'm getting a little thin in places. I always figured I'd just shave my head if it got to look too bad. Unless they come up with a one time treatment that doesn't involve any kind of surgery and lasts the rest of your life, I'm not interested.

I'm not concerned with it either way and outside of her two brothers (the elder of whom died in his 50' as did her father) I don't have any real examples from that side of the family.  All I can see is that I have been following the same pattern set on my fathers side.

Personally if I go gray or bald I really don't care.  For some reason my not caring bothers my friends almost as much as their balding and graying.  I have very strange friends I think. 

[Centurus]

I got my first gray hair when I was around 11 or 12.  I have alot more gray hair now, but it's not noticeable unless you look, but I do have it.

My father had a full head of hair till the day he died, except for the year before he died when he tried to dye his hair and left the dye in all night, and as a result he had a couple bald patches on the back of his hair that grew back stone white.

On my mother's side, my grandfather was bald, and was going bald by the time he was in his mid 20s.  And my uncle, on my mother's side, is also bald.  He started going bald around his mid to late 20s.  In his 30s, he was noticeably bald.

However, my brother and I have all our hair.  My brother will be celebrating his 41st birthday next month, and he hasn't even suffered thining of the hair.  I'm 26 and have alot of hair, with no indication of balding at all.

[Corbomite]

Sounds like you won the gene lottery! 

[Centurus]

Sounds like you won the gene lottery! 

Who me?  Only when it comes to hair.  When I was still going to college, regardless if my hair was long or short, all the girls in the Theater Department always hated me cause of my hair cause it's thick, shines, and also has body and curls on its own cause it's not straight, but not curly, but wavy.  And some of them would always run their fingers through my hair.

In the looks and equipment department, I got royally screwed.  The only other person I can think of that got screwed by their religion is Achmed The Dead Terrorist.  But he's funny, so it all works out.

[Just plain old Punisher]

Old grey hair ain't what she used to be...

[Centurus]

Old grey hair ain't what she used to be...

*does a ho down*

[toasty0]

Sheesh! Go cure cancer or MS or something like that. Spending money to discover a gene for baldness is plain stoopid.

[Dracho]

Commercial medicine..

Although, the money from the cure for baldness could be put into R&D for something important.   33% of the male population is a large number and therefore a lucrative market.

[Nemesis]

Sheesh! Go cure cancer or MS or something like that. Spending money to discover a gene for baldness is plain stoopid.

Not really.  Too many people researching the same thing means lots of duplication of effort and therefore waste.  Research like this may not be life saving but it still provides information about what a little more of the genome does and perhaps in time the how and why that makes it work.  The more of the bits  and pieces are understood the easier it becomes to understand other bits and pieces that may be life saving.

[marstone]

Sheesh! Go cure cancer or MS or something like that. Spending money to discover a gene for baldness is plain stoopid.

Not really.  Too many people researching the same thing means lots of duplication of effort and therefore waste.  Research like this may not be life saving but it still provides information about what a little more of the genome does and perhaps in time the how and why that makes it work.  The more of the bits  and pieces are understood the easier it becomes to understand other bits and pieces that may be life saving.

I have to agree with Nemesis on this.  This research seems unimportant to those who still have hair (still have mine and I be 40 so should be good to go).  But the information on the genes and how they function can be extrapolated to other genes being researched so this study could actually help out on cancer research in the long run.  (among many other things).

[Soreyes]

Looks in the mirror. <Sigh> to late for me. 

[Nemesis]

I have to agree with Nemesis on this.  This research seems unimportant to those who still have hair (still have mine and I be 40 so should be good to go).  But the information on the genes and how they function can be extrapolated to other genes being researched so this study could actually help out on cancer research in the long run.  (among many other things).

Knowledge rarely goes to waste.  Sometimes even failed research can open up new areas. 

As an example there was a chemical experiment that was supposed to result in a gas (I think for refrigeration) and the result was a liquid.  One of the researchers instead of just scrapping the failure opened the tank and started to study the sludge inside, that sludge is now called Teflon.  If the one guy hadn't "wasted his time" looking at it a valuable chemical would have been missed.

Consider the classic incandescent bulb.  In developing it they didn't target one type of material they tried a great many, some of them even silly things but with each test they learned a little more.  Finally they learned enough to find the right material to use.   If they had targeted just one material the odds are they would never have found the right one to use.

Looks in the mirror. <Sigh> to late for me. 

Maybe not.  Knowing the genes leads to the potential to learn how to control them.  Learn to turn them on and to turn them off.  I'd love to see it lead to medicated creams that you can apply to areas of skin and either cause hair to grow or not grow.  You would get your "long hippy hair" and I'd never need to shave again. 

[Panzergranate]

Well they've always known that it is the mother that passes on the baldness genes, so if the maternal father is bald, therefore the male grandchildren of the maternal grandfather will be bald.

And any physician will tell you something that they've known for ince before Roman times, baldness is caused by excess testosterone production cause, in turn, by large than average genitalia.... which is why women reckon that bald men make better lovers.... they're better equiped.