NEW BREAKTHROUGHS IN MALE PATTERN BALDNESS.

Report #6943; TWO

We used to think that male-pattern baldness,/ on the top of the head/, is caused by a derivative of the male hormone called dihydrotestosterone. Recent research show that theory may be wrong and that male-pattern baldness may be caused by a combination of an infection and the female hormone, estrogen.

In the first study, French researchers report in the Journal of Dermatologic Treatment, that biopsies of the scalp in men with male-pattern baldness show signs of infection/ particularly a marked increase in the density of activated T cells and IgG antibody deposits. When men with male-pattern baldness rubbed an antibiotic cream on their balding heads for 10 months (piroctone olamine and triclosanon), biopsies showed that their T cells and IGG deposits disappeared and the rate of hair loss slowed down to normal. Another recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the female hormone, estrogen, in mice puts hair into a resting stage that can prevent hair from growing/ and/ that giving hormones that block estrogen causes the hair to start growing again. If these studies can be duplicated by other researchers, the future treatment for male-pattern baldness may be to shampoo daily and then apply a special antibiotic cream to the scalp. I am sure that studies will start soon to see if a cream containing the anti-estrogen drug, tamoxifen, stops male-pattern baldness from progressing. More than 30 years ago, several studies showed that a cream containing another female hormone, called progesterone, slowed hair loss in male pattern baldness.

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News