Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a common heritable and androgen-dependent hair loss condition in men. Twelve genetic risk loci are known to date but it is unclear which genes at these loci are relevant for AGA. Dermal papilla cells (DPC) located in the hair bulb are the main site of androgen activity in the hair follicle. Widely used monolayer-cultured primary DPC in hair-related studies often lack dermal papilla (DP) characteristics. In contrast, immortalised DPC have high resemblance to intact DP. We derived immortalised human DPC lines from balding (BAB) and non-balding (BAN) scalp. Both BAB and BAN retain high proportions of DP signature gene and versican protein expression. We performed expression analysis of BAB and BAN and annotated AGA risk loci with differentially-expressed genes. We found evidence for AR but not EDA2R as the candidate gene at the AGA risk locus on chromosome X. Further, our data suggest TWIST1 and SSPN to be the functionally relevant AGA genes at the 7p21.1 and 12p12.1 risk loci, respectively. Down-regulated genes in BAB compared to BAN were highly enriched for vasculature-related genes, suggesting that deficiency of DPC from balding scalps in fostering vascularisation around the hair follicle may contribute to the development of AGA.
Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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