Biomedical Letters

Androgen receptor (AR) gene polymorphism rs6152 is associated with androgenetic alopecia

Ayesha Maqbool 1*, Sadia Kousar1, Akhtar Ali 2, Tanveer Hussain 1, Masroor Ellahi Babar 2, Yasir Ali 3

1 Department of Molecular Biology, Virtual University of Pakistan

2 Department of Biotechnology, Virtual University of Pakistan

3 Department of Biology, Virtual University of Pakistan

Abstract

Androgenetic alopecia is a genetic disorder characterized by distinct forms of baldness. Main reason of alopecia is the imbalance between hair fall and regrowth. Alopecia can be either syndromic alopecia that occurs along with other clinical conditions like epilepsy, nail dystrophy or it can be is non-syndromic alopecia; having no other clinical conditions. Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a non-syndromic alopecia commonly known as Male Pattern Baldness. 80% of males above age of 70 and 80 years are affected by this condition. We considered rs6152, G>A polymorphism of androgen receptor (AR) gene as candidate for androgenetic alopecia in Pakistani men. A total of 60 patients with reported clinical alopecia and 30 age-matched controls were analyzed. Polymerase chain reaction and subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) by StuI restriction enzyme were performed to detect rs6152 polymorphism of AR gene using. 40 patients with cosmetically reported baldness showed association rs6152 polymorphism with androgenetic alopecia, whereas 3 controls with no baldness also exhibited rs6152, G>A polymorphism. The study indicated strong association of rs6125 G>A SNP of AR gene with androgenetic alopecia.