Los Angeles Hair Restoration: The Discovery of a New Hair Loss Gene

April 12, 2010 - PRLog -- About a third of all men are affected by male pattern baldness by the age of 45. This condition has caused a considerable amount of social and economic impact, with expenditures for hair transplantation in the United States alone exceeding $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 or on the crown of the head, and results in a distinctive M-shaped hairline. Initial thinning of hair progresses over a number of years and may lead to total baldness, and typical loss of hair is seen on the top surface of the head. Adults lose about 10,000 scalp hairs each and every day, and hair normally lives for around five years. With male pattern baldness, these hairs do not always get replaced and gradually bald areas appear. Estimates suggest more than 80 per cent of cases are hereditary, and many studies have been conducted to study the reason why.

Scientists at Bonn and Düsseldorf Universities have discovered an important hair-loss gene. During their study, the researchers investigated over 500,000 positions in the human genome, and found a gene variant which occurs clearly more frequently in bald men than in control persons. The results reveal that more than one gene is involved in the development of male hair loss, and also emphasizes the inheritance of baldness is due to the only known risk gene for the androgen receptor on the X-chromosome. This is thus inherited from the mother – which accounts for the fact that in the case of hair loss, men often take after their maternal grandfathers. However, the newly discovered gene lies on chromosome 20, and can be inherited from both the mother and the father. This information helps to explain for the hair loss pattern similarity between father and son.

A healthy individual loses around a hundred hairs a day. This is not a concern as long as they are constantly replaced and the losses occur evenly around the whole scalp. But when hair loss goes well beyond this level, it can become quite a problem for those affected — not only superficially in terms of looks but also psychologically. Hair loss can occur for a number of reasons and can often be treated successfully.

One possible treatment is known as the Umar Procedure, or the Single Follicle and Extraction (SFET) hair restoration method pioneered by Dr. Umar and performed at the DermHair Clinic in Los Angeles. With this breakthrough hair transplantation procedure, Dr. Umar is able to transplant hair from various parts of the body to the balding areas of the head (body hair transplantation, BHT) in his Los Angeles hair clinic. With this innovative procedure, even the most severely bald individual can have his hair restored globally without sacrificing the crown or settling for an aged higher hairline. Dr. Umar’s procedure is very effective and is a possible option for some severely bald individuals or those that are donor depleted. For more information, please contact the DermHair Clinic in Los Angeles at (310)318-1500, or visit http://www.dermhairclinic.com/