SOURCE OF BALDNESS FOUND!!!

Male-pattern baldness susceptibility locus at 20p11.

Richards JB, Yuan X, Geller F, Waterworth D, Bataille V, Glass D, Song K, Waeber G, Vollenweider P, Aben KK, Kiemeney LA, Walters B, Soranzo N, Thorsteinsdottir U, Kong A, Rafnar T, Deloukas P, Sulem P, Stefansson H, Stefansson K, Spector TD, Mooser V.

We conducted a genome-wide association study for androgenic alopecia in 1,125 men and identified a newly associated locus at chromosome 20p11.22, confirmed in three independent cohorts (n = 1,650; OR = 1.60, P = 1.1 x 10(-14) for rs1160312). The one man in seven who harbors risk alleles at both 20p11.22 and AR (encoding the androgen receptor) has a sevenfold-increased odds of androgenic alopecia (OR = 7.12, P = 3.7 x 10(-15)).

Nat Genet. 2008 Nov;40(11):1282-4. Epub 2008 Oct 12.

Why is this cool?

 To me baldness is one of those features of my body that I am constantly aware of. Every time I see a mirror or my reflection, I notice the sparseness of my hair. When engaged in casual conversation, I will touch my scalp and try to quantify how much skin I should feel if I have a full head of hair and then I place myself on a scale ranging from beautiful locks to upside down salad bowl. I usually fall towards salad bowl.

 Today's paper points a stubby finger at a particular locus and screams "PERFIDIOUS!!" What did they do? So, they did a genome wide association of over 1,000 dudes and found locus 20p11.22!! What is a genome wide association? I'm not sure. I need to read the paper to find out. Their big result is "The one man in seven who harbors risk alleles at both 20p11.22 and AR (encoding the androgen receptor) has a sevenfold-increased odds of androgenic alopecia." This means that 14% of men have two copies of both 20p11.22 and AR increasing their risk of male pattern baldness sevenfold. It is interesting is that that abstract does not mention anything about AR prior to the concluding sentence. I wonder what that means.

 Some of you might be wondering why baldness is so important and it is a legitimate question. When you think bald men, immediately you are swamped with Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart, and Michael Clark Duncan. Men who are badasses in every respect, but there is something more important than making these badass men more badass. We need to cure baldness to prevent serious maniacs from annihilating everything we hold dear. The two most unstoppable bald men every are: DARTH VADER!! AND THE EMPEROR!!

 

 These guys destroy planets and choke people just because they can. Their baldness has driven them to madness and even a son's attempts at reconciliation are cast aside in the epic battle against people with full heads of hear.

 

  Did you ever wonder why they choose Endor to park their huge, anatomically correct bald head? It is because Ewoks are just covered in hair and they represent everything that bald men hate: full heads of hair, happiness, and not wearing pants.