New genetic culprit found for early progressive hair loss

Posted on November 10, 2018

2 min read

Many people face hair loss, but only a few experience it from as early as childhood. This occurs in a rare hereditary condition called hypotrichosis simplex. Now, finally, researchers have been able to identify the gene responsible for this form of hair loss.

One gene may drive the mechanisms behind a rare form of hair loss.

Individuals with hypotrichosis simplex have a normal amount of hair after birth, but they start losing it in early childhood. This loss continues to progress with age.

Although researchers know that this is a hereditary condition, so far, they have only identified few of the potential genetic culprits.

One of these is a mutation in the APCDD1 gene, which interferes with a signaling pathway that influences cell function and regeneration.

Now, researchers from the University Hospital of Bonn in Germany, in collaboration with colleagues from other institutions in Germany and Switzerland, have closed in on another gene that plays a crucial role in this rare type of hair loss.

Their study, the findings of which appear in The American Journal of Human Genetics, indicate that mutations in the LSS gene drive the mechanisms that characterize hypotrichosis simplex.

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