Will Genetic Research Help Treat Baldness

Baldness is something that affects a large number of people, and particularly as we get older and particularly in males. For those who lose their hair at a relatively early age this can be quite alarming and leave them feeling less attractive and looking older. A lot of pride is connected to a full head of hair, and so it is no surprise that those suffering from baldness are clamoring to find some form of cure, and those who suspect they might develop it later in life are similarly hopeful that a preventative measure might be discovered soon.

Those who suspect they might be prone to baldness often believe this due to it being prevalent in their family. Many men whose fathers went bald at a young age end up going bald at a young age themselves. This suggests a genetic link, but with all of the research being done into genetics this might actually be a good thing and might offer hope for a solution being found.

Genetics research is capable of achieving almost any change to our genotype. Most of our health is determined by a combination of our DNA and environmental factors such as our diet and our behaviour. Hair growth for example is caused by a combination of both these things and is affected by our hormones, the health of our scalp, and things like physical trauma and stress.

Genetic research allows the genetic element of this to be changed and improved. One day a single injection might be able to change sections of our DNA � either temporarily (non-insertional) or permanently (insertional) � and as research finds which sections of code need to be changed this will be within our grasp. When DNA is changed in the nucleus of one cell this is then copied exactly every time the cell splits and makes a copy of itself. Thus as your body repairs itself, your old cells are replaced with the new and your body behaves according to its new programming. Already examples of insertional gene ‘doping’ as it is called have occurred. For example insertional gene doping in mice has managed to make them fully transparent (using code ‘borrowed’ from jellyfish), glow in the dark and even insanely muscular (by knocking out the ‘myostatin’ producing gene). A similar single injection could address the cause of baldness in an individual and potentially prevent or reverse the balding process � though this would of course be reliant on the correct environmental factors and health behaviours too.

So why do not these injections already exist? The money in them is of course huge. Well the problem is that they are not currently perfected, and that they could be dangerous in their current form. While injecting into the nucleus inserts new genetic code into the DNA, where in the DNA it lands is currently left to change. In other words it is like inserting a new paragraph into a book � and that paragraph could go anywhere in the book. If it overrides crucial text then � or crucial DNA � this could cause our crucial functions to cease working. Resulting in all kinds of potential side effects.

In most cases this is actually okay � as a whopping 75% of our DNA is not used. It is blank DNA, or as it is known ‘junk’ DNA. However, this still means there is a 25% chance of the new DNA overriding important genes and causing problems. At the same time there is some fear that gene doping might increase the likelihood of cancer developing � a real threat when you consider that cancer is caused by DNA mutating and that some of the few cases of human gene doping (to cure genetic disease) have been followed by cancer. So there is still a way to go, but the point is there is hope, and this is just one avenue of research that might yet yield results for those suffering from baldness or expecting to.