In the studies of bald men and laboratory mice, the US scientists have pointed out that a protein responsible to trigger hair loss. With this finding, they have discovered a clue to male baldness increasing the prospect of developing a treatment to stop or reverse thinning hair.

The drugs targeting the pathway are already under development, as reported by the researchers in the journal Science Translation Medicine. The recent research may help in the treatment of baldness. It is to be noticed that most men start becoming bald in the middle age and about 80% of men loses some hair by 70 years of age.

The genetic factors as well as male sex hormone testosterone play key role in causing the hair follicles to shrink and gradually making them small. Later, this hair becomes invisible and the men appear to be bald. However, now that the researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have known which genes become active when men start going bald after a deep analyses, we can expect the researchers to quickly find some treatment to this problem.

The researchers discovered that a key protein called prostaglandin D synthase gets elevated in hair follicles’ cells situated in bald patches on the scalp and not the areas with hair. A breed of mice completely went bald on having high levels of the protein. Similarly, the transplanted human hair did not grow after the protein was given. The research leader, Prof. George Cotsarelis of the department of dermatology said, “Essentially we showed that prostaglandin protein was elevated in the bald scalp of men and that it inhibited hair growth. So we identified a target for treating male-pattern baldness.”

He added saying, “The next step would be to screen for compounds that affect this receptor and to also find out whether blocking that receptor would reverse balding or just prevent balding – a question that would take a while to figure out.”

He also said that as the protein binds to a receptor on the hair follicles’ cells, the inhibition of hair growth gets triggered. However, he gave relieve to those who are looking to get treated for the hair loss by saying that the drugs helpful in targeting this pathway have been identified and some of those are already under clinical trials.

Thus, the males facing hair loss can keep their fingers crossed and wait for the development of some treatment effective in preventing baldness and also helpful in hair re-growth.

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