Abstract
We conducted a genome-wide association study for androgenic alopecia in 1,125 men and identified a newly associated locus at chromosome 20p11.22, confirmed in three independent cohorts (n = 1,650; OR = 1.60, P = 1.1 × 10−14 for rs1160312). The one man in seven who harbors risk alleles at both 20p11.22 and AR (encoding the androgen receptor) has a sevenfold-increased odds of androgenic alopecia (OR = 7.12, P = 3.7 × 10−15).
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Mapping of cis-acting expression quantitative trait loci in human scalp hair follicles
BMC Dermatology Open Access 10 November 2020
-
Dissection of genetic variation and evidence for pleiotropy in male pattern baldness
Nature Communications Open Access 20 December 2018
-
Misestimation of heritability and prediction accuracy of male-pattern baldness
Nature Communications Open Access 29 June 2018
Access options
Subscribe to Journal
Get full journal access for 1 year
$79.00
only $6.58 per issue
All prices are NET prices.
VAT will be added later in the checkout.
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.
Buy article
Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.
$32.00
All prices are NET prices.

References
Olsen, E. Disorders of hair growth: Diagnosis and Treatment 257 (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1994).
Cash, T.F., Price, V.H. & Savin, R.C. J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. 29, 568–575 (1993).
Lo, J.C. et al. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 91, 1357–1363 (2006).
Nyholt, D.R., Gillespie, N.A., Heath, A.C. & Martin, N.G. J. Invest. Dermatol. 121, 1561–1564 (2003).
Ellis, J.A., Stebbing, M. & Harrap, S.B. J. Invest. Dermatol. 116, 452–455 (2001).
Hayes, V.M. et al. Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 14, 993–996 (2005).
Hillmer, A.M. et al. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 77, 140–148 (2005).
Levy-Nissenbaum, E., Bar-Natan, M., Frydman, M. & Pras, E. Eur. J. Dermatol. 15, 339–340 (2005).
Prodi, D.A. et al. J. Invest. Dermatol. 128, 2268–2270 (2008).
Sandhu, M.S. et al. Lancet 371, 483–491 (2008).
Kleinjan, D.A. & van Heyningen, V. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 76, 8–32 (2005).
Littman, A.J. & White, E. Ann. Epidemiol. 15, 771–772 (2005).
Li, L. & Hoffman, R.M. Nat. Med. 1, 705–706 (1995).
Domashenko, A., Gupta, S. & Cotsarelis, G. Nat. Biotechnol. 18, 420–423 (2000).
Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the cooperation and dedication of the study participants and the personnel at the recruitment centers and core facilities. We would like to acknowledge the genotyping contributions of D. Smyth and J. Todd. This study was funded in part by GlaxoSmithKline; deCODE Genetics; the Wellcome Trust; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (grant to Guys' and St. Thomas' Hospitals and King's College London); the Chronic Disease Research Foundation; the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (J.B.R.) and the Sixth Framework Program of the EU contract number 018827 (Polygene).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
V.M., P.V., G.W. and D.W. designed and implemented the CoLaus Study and the primary nested male-pattern baldness study. J.B.R., F.G., L.A.K., H.S., K. Stefansson, T.D.S. and V.M. designed the final study with appropriate replication datasets. J.B.R., X.Y., F.G., D.W., K. Song and V.M. analyzed the data. J.B.R., V.B., D.G., G.W., P.V., D.W., K.K.H.A., L.A.K., B.W., U.T., A.K., T.R., P.S., T.D.S. and V.M. contributed to data collection and phenotype definitions. V.B., G.W., T.D.S. and V.M. obtained funding. N.S. and P.D. performed genotyping for the women from the TwinsUK cohort. J.B.R. wrote the first draft of the paper and all authors made important contributions to the final version of the paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Xin Yuan, Dawn Waterworth, Kijoung Song and Vincent Mooser are full-time employees of GlaxoSmithKline. Peter Vollenweider and Gérard Waeber received financial support from GlaxoSmithKline to build the CoLaus study. Frank Geller, Bragi Walters, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Augustine Kong, Thorunn Rafnar, Patrick Sulem, Hrein Stefansson and Kari Stefansson are full-time employees of deCODE genetics.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Text and Figures
Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Figures 1 and 2 (PDF 62 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Richards, J., Yuan, X., Geller, F. et al. Male-pattern baldness susceptibility locus at 20p11. Nat Genet 40, 1282–1284 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.255
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.255
This article is cited by
-
Mapping of cis-acting expression quantitative trait loci in human scalp hair follicles
BMC Dermatology (2020)
-
Investigation on Microecology of Hair Root Fungi in Androgenetic Alopecia Patients
Mycopathologia (2019)
-
Dissection of genetic variation and evidence for pleiotropy in male pattern baldness
Nature Communications (2018)
-
Misestimation of heritability and prediction accuracy of male-pattern baldness
Nature Communications (2018)
-
Early-onset baldness and the risk of aggressive prostate cancer: findings from a case–control study
Cancer Causes & Control (2018)