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Investigation of four novel male androgenetic alopecia susceptibility loci: no association with female pattern hair loss

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Abstract

Female pattern hair loss (FPHL) is a common hair loss disorder in women and has a complex mode of inheritance. The etiopathogenesis of FPHL is largely unknown; however, it is hypothesized that FPHL and male pattern baldness [androgenetic alopecia (AGA)] share common genetic susceptibility alleles. Our recent findings indicate that the major AGA locus, an X-chromosome region containing the androgen receptor and the ectodysplasin A2 receptor (EDA2R) genes, may represent a common genetic factor underlying both early-onset FPHL and AGA. This gives further support for the widespread assumption of shared susceptibility loci for FPHL and AGA. However, we could not demonstrate association of further AGA risk loci, including 20p11, 1p36.22, 2q37.3, 7p21.1, 7q11.22, 17q21.31, and 18q21.1, with FPHL. Interestingly, a recent study identified four novel AGA risk loci in chromosomal regions 2q35, 3q25.1, 5q33.3, and 12p12.1. In particular, the 2q35 locus and its gene WNT10A point to an as-yet unknown involvement of the WNT signaling pathway in AGA. We hypothesized that the novel loci and thus also the WNT signaling may have a role in the etiopathogenesis of FPHL and therefore examined the role of these novel AGA risk loci in our FPHL samples comprising 440 German and 145 UK affected patients, 500 German unselected controls (blood donors), and 179 UK supercontrols. Patients and controls were genotyped for the top two single nucleotide polymorphisms at each of the four AGA loci. However, none of the genotyped variants displayed any significant association. In conclusion, the results of this study provide no support for the hypothesis that the novel AGA loci influence susceptibility to FPHL.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank all patients for their participation in the study. The authors thank the British Skin Foundation (AGM and RTA, 2005) for supporting the FPHL DNA collection. R.C.B. is recipient of a Heisenberg Professorship from the German Research Foundation (DFG). R.C.B. and M.M.N. are members of the DFG-funded Excellence-cluster ImmunoSensation.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Human Genetics, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127, Bonn, Germany

    Rima Nuwaihyd, Silke Redler, Stefanie Heilmann, Sabrina Wolf, Markus M. Nöthen & Regina C. Betz

  2. Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Clinical Research Center for Hair and Skin Science, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany

    Rima Nuwaihyd, Natalie Garcia-Bartels & Ulrike Blume-Peytavi

  3. Department of Genomics, Life and Brain Center, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127, Bonn, Germany

    Stefanie Heilmann & Markus M. Nöthen

  4. German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127, Bonn, Germany

    Dmitriy Drichel & Tim Becker

  5. Department of Dermatology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, S10 2JF, UK

    Pattie Birch, Kathy Dobson & Andrew G. Messenger

  6. Dermatological Practice, Hair and Nail, Wesseling, Kronenweg 84, 50389, Wesseling, Germany

    Gerhard Lutz

  7. Department of Dermatology, University of Munich, Frauenlobstr. 9-11, 83125, Munich, Germany

    Kathrin A. Giehl & Hans Wolff

  8. Dermatological Practice, Paderborn, Alte Brauerei 11, 33098, Paderborn, Germany

    Roland Kruse

  9. Department of Infection and Immunity, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2JF, UK

    Rachid Tazi-Ahnini

  10. Department of Dermatology, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Moorenstr. 5, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Sandra Hanneken

  11. Laboratory for Neuroendocrinology of the Skin and Interdisciplinary Endocrinology, Department of Dermatology, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 58, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Markus Böhm

  12. Department of Dermatology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538, Lübeck, Germany

    Anja Miesel & Tobias Fischer

  13. Institute for Medical Biometry, Informatics and Epidemiology, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127, Bonn, Germany

    Tim Becker

Authors
  1. Rima Nuwaihyd
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  2. Silke Redler
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  3. Stefanie Heilmann
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  4. Dmitriy Drichel
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  5. Sabrina Wolf
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  6. Pattie Birch
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  7. Kathy Dobson
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  8. Gerhard Lutz
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  9. Kathrin A. Giehl
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  10. Roland Kruse
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  11. Rachid Tazi-Ahnini
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  12. Sandra Hanneken
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  13. Markus Böhm
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  14. Anja Miesel
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  15. Tobias Fischer
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  16. Hans Wolff
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  17. Tim Becker
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  18. Natalie Garcia-Bartels
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  19. Ulrike Blume-Peytavi
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  20. Markus M. Nöthen
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  21. Andrew G. Messenger
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  22. Regina C. Betz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silke Redler.

Additional information

R. Nuwaihyd and S. Redler have contributed equally to this work.

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Nuwaihyd, R., Redler, S., Heilmann, S. et al. Investigation of four novel male androgenetic alopecia susceptibility loci: no association with female pattern hair loss. Arch Dermatol Res 306, 413–418 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-013-1436-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-013-1436-4

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