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In the latest Straight Dope , Cecil references a very recent study that shows that male pattern baldness is primarily inherited from the mother's side via the X chromosome. So apparently the common wisdom was correct after all. Maybe someone can pull the actual study text.
Yeah...my greatgrandfather on my mothers side was bald...I really think though that it can manifest in mosaics...which would be varying degrees...I have brothers with lots of hair...Hope someone cracks the code soon (would be one rich MF)...I wouldn't mind getting my hair back...
http://forums.steroid.com/showpost.p...46&postcount=2
Am J Hum Genet. 2005 Jul;77(1):140-8. Epub 2005 May 18.Related Articles, Links
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...icons-ucpj.gif
Genetic variation in the human androgen receptor gene is the major determinant of common early-onset androgenetic alopecia.
Hillmer AM, Hanneken S, Ritzmann S, Becker T, Freudenberg J, Brockschmidt FF, Flaquer A, Freudenberg-Hua Y, Jamra RA, Metzen C, Heyn U, Schweiger N, Betz RC, Blaumeiser B, Hampe J, Schreiber S, Schulze TG, Hennies HC, Schumacher J, Propping P, Ruzicka T, Cichon S, Wienker TF, Kruse R, Nothen MM.
Department of Genomics, Life and Brain Center, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Androgenetic alopecia (AGA), or male-pattern baldness, is the most common form of hair loss. Its pathogenesis is androgen dependent, and genetic predisposition is the major requirement for the phenotype. We demonstrate that genetic variability in the androgen receptor gene (AR) is the cardinal prerequisite for the development of early-onset AGA, with an etiological fraction of 0.46. The investigation of a large number of genetic variants covering the AR locus suggests that a polyglycine-encoding GGN repeat in exon 1 is a plausible candidate for conferring the functional effect. The X-chromosomal location of AR stresses the importance of the maternal line in the inheritance of AGA.
PMID: 15902657 [PubMed - in process]