Androgenetic alopecia (AGA), or male-pattern baldness, is the most common form of hair loss. Its pathogenesis is androgen dependent, and genetic predisposition is the major requirement for the phenotype. We demonstrate that genetic variability in the androgen receptor gene (AR) is the cardinal prerequisite for the development of early-onset AGA, with an etiological fraction of 0.46. The investi...

BACKGROUND Androgenic alopecia (AGA) is a major type of human scalp hair loss, which is caused by two androgens: testosterone (T) and 5α-dihydrotestosterone (5α-DHT). Both androgens bind to the androgen receptor (AR) and induce androgen-sensitive genes within the human hair dermal papilla cells (HHDPCs), but 5α-DHT exhibits much higher binding affinity and potency than T does in inducing the in...

Small for gestational age (SGA) children are more prone to have precocious pubarche and exaggerated precocious adrenarche, an earlier onset of pubertal development and menarche, and faster progression of puberty than children born of appropriate for gestational age (AGA) size. The majority of studies investigating the onset of puberty in children born SGA and AGA established that, although pube...

BACKGROUND The ophthalmic artery Doppler waveform (OADW) is thought to correlate with severity of systemic atherosclerosis. The goal of the present study was to evaluate risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in newborns small for gestational age (SGA) and appropriate for gestational age (AGA). METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 15 SGA and 26 AGA newborns were enrolled in the study. OADW was compar...

BACKGROUND An obesity subphenotype, named 'metabolically healthy obese' (MHO) has been recently defined to characterise a subgroup of obese individuals with less risk for cardiometabolic abnormalities. To date no data are available on participants born with small weight for gestational age (SGA) and the risk of metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUHO). OBJECTIVE Assess the risk of MUHO in SGA v...

BACKGROUND Placental supply of fatty acids (FA) is essential for normal foetal development but in premature infants this supply is interrupted. To investigate the association of intrautrine growth restriction with serum phospholipid and breast milk FA composition, we compared preterm infants small for gestational age (SGA) and matched appropriate for gestational age (AGA), and their mothers' mi...

BACKGROUND The functional polymorphism that explains the established association of the androgen receptor (AR) with androgenetic alopecia (AGA) remains unidentified, but Copy Number Variation (CNV) might be relevant. CNV involves changes in copy number of large segments of DNA, leading to the altered dosage of gene regulators or genes themselves. Two recent reports indicate regions of CNV in an...