Plasma Zinc Levels in Males with Androgenetic Alopecia as Possible Predictors of the Subsequent Conservative Therapy's Effectiveness.

Irina N Kondrakhina,Alexey A Kubanov,Dmitry A Verbenko,Eugenia R Gatiatulina,Dmitrij G Deryabin,Alexander M Zatevalov,Alexandr A Nikonorov

doi:10.3390/diagnostics10050336

Abstract

Androgenic alopecia (AGA) is the most common type of progressive hair loss in man. The search for reliable predictors of the conservative treatment’s effectiveness is an urgent problem today. Forty-eight patients with AGA, stages I–IV by the Norwood–Hamilton scale, were treated for 4 months with 5% topical minoxidil joints with corrections for trace element and vitamin imbalances. In most cases, the positive therapy’s effect was shown in the parietal but not in the occipital area, whereas that effect was observed in others. The attempts to associate the therapy’s effectiveness with initially defined genetic, hormonal, and metabolic parameters showed the absence of differences between groups with positive and negative outcomes. Among the studied nutrient parameters (Zn, Cu, Mg, Ca, Fe, and Se, as well as vitamins B12, E, D, and folic acid), differences between these groups was shown in zinc content only. The starting point from a zinc plasma level above 10 µmol/L likely provides the success of the subsequent conservative therapy and correlates with an increase in the hair density and diameter in the parietal area. The integral predictive value of the Zn plasma level was assessed as 72.3% (positive predictive value: −88%; and negative predictive value: −55%).

Highlights

Androgenic alopecia (AGA), known as male pattern baldness, is the most common type of progressive hair loss
It has long been suggested that Zn plays an important role in hair loss [7]
Rahman and Akhter showed that lower serum levels of zinc (75.41 ± 9.47 vs 99.97 ± 7.72 μg/dl in the controls) and copper (74.55 ± 9.65 vs 100.23 ± 10.95 μg/dl in the controls) may be associated with alopecia regardless of gender, and an assessment of serum Zn and Cu concentrations may be useful for the correct treatment of alopecia [30]

Summary

Introduction

Androgenic alopecia (AGA), known as male pattern baldness, is the most common type of progressive hair loss. It is well known that AGA is found in genetically predisposed people, as shown in our [2] and other studies [3,4,5]. An important role in the emergence and development of this disease is traditionally attributed to hormonal changes, mainly to an increased levels of male sex hormones [6], changing the transcription profiles in the hair follicle cells. A comparison of the role of genetic and non-genetic factors shows that patients with a low level of genetic risk of AGA developing have a higher number of significant non-genetic factors, including an Diagnostics 2020, 10, 336; doi:10.3390/diagnostics10050336 www.mdpi.com/journal/diagnostics Multiple metabolic, trace element, and vitamin changes that disturb the nutrition of the hair follicle and lead to hair loss have been discussed [7,8,9,10].

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