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In the October 15th issue of the Journal of Genes and Development, Catherine Thompson from the Kennedy Krieger Research Institute and the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore reports new findings about the hairless gene.
  
The famous hairless gene was discovered by Dr. Christiano of Culumbia University in 1998. Dr. Christiano's research led her to a family in Pakistan in which all of the family members are suffering from alopecia universalis - a rare form of hair loss that cause complete baldness in a person's scalp and eyebrows etc. Incidentally, after a series of DNA testing on the Pakistani family, Dr. Christiano hypothesized a link  between the Pakistani family and a batch of mice that were born hairless and eventually led to the one of the biggest discovery in the history of hair loss treatment.
  
Thompson's findings suggest that we may still be a long way from a possible genetic cure for baldness. Thompson's team was unable to establish a direct link between the Hairless gene and androgenetic alopecia (male of female pattern baldness). Furthermore, it is still unclear why and how the gene causes alopecia universalis.
  
To complicate the matter further, research has shown that the hairless gene is not only related to alopecia universalis, but to another condition called papular atrichia as well.

Part of Thompson's focus was to study how instructions from the hairless gene affect the functions of protein. It is suggested that the hairless protein may regulate genes that are invoked by the thyroid hormone, and in particular the protein may act to shut down those genes in the absence of thyroid hormone. Interesting enough, the hairless gene itself is a by-product of the thyroid hormone so researchers concluded that the hairless gene may govern its own behaviors as well as that of the other genes that are invoked by thyroid hormone. We all know that certain thyroid conditions can cause hair loss and perhaps this is the first time when scientists offer a genetic explanation of the association between thyroid activity and hair loss.

Although research in gene therapy as a baldness treatment is still
in its infancy, it is encouraging to learn that there are now more scientists expressing an interest in this field. In addition to Dr. Christiano and Thompson, Dr. Sinha from Cornell University represents another team that is currently working on a gene expression mapping project that will hopefully establish a link between hair loss and certain genes.


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