Endocrine Abstracts

Androgenic alopecia (AGA) is an important clinical issue that can cause significant cosmetic problems. Many factors such as genetic, androgen hormones, environmental factors, and inflammation are involved in the pathogenesis of androgenic alopecia. Insulin and insulin resistance have been found increased in individuals with AGA. There are many proinflammatory substances which are playing role in the pathogenesis of androgenic alopecia. Secreted frizzled related protein-4 (SFRP-4) serves as the regulator of insulin exocytosis in pancreatic islet cells. Recently reports have been shown that SFRP-4 serum levels were correlated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In two small but notable cohort studies, presuming that SFRP-4 might be an early diabetic indicator, SFRP-4 was observed to increase in serum a few years before the diagnosis of diabetes. In this study, it is aimed to determine the levels of SFRP-4 in androgenic alopecia. Forty-one male patients aged 25–45 years with the complaint of male pattern hair loss which is started before 30 years old and 40 male patients without alopecia were involved to the study. The androgenic alopecia types of patients were determined according to the Hamilton-Norward classification. Specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits were used for serum SFRP-4 measurement. Ambulatory blood pressure measurements were performed to all participants with an oscillometric type Mobil O Graph NG instrument. The age, BMI and smoking rates were not significantly different between two groups (P>0.05). In the group with androgenic alopecia, the SFRP-4 median was 1.50 ng/ml (normal: 0.01–21.20) while in the control group it was 0.57 ng/ml (0.04–5.20) (P=0.025). Ambulatory blood pressure measurements were not different between the two groups (P>0.05). Spearman’s correlation test showed a significantly positive correlation between SFRP-4 and HOMA-IR, sensitive CRP, BMI, and night pulse rate (respectively: rho=0.265, P=0.017; ρ=0.274, P=0.013; ρ=0.220, P=0.049; ρ=0.226, P=0.042), and a mild negative correlation with HDL-cholesterol values in the AGA group (ρ=−0.242, P=0.030). In many studies serum SFRP-4 levels were higher in patients with diabetes. We also found that SFRP-4 levels were significantly correlated with BMI, HOMA-IR levels at early ages in men with androgenic alopecia in our study. SFRP-4 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of androgenic alopecia, which could be an early indicator of insulin resistance, diabetes and hypertension that may develop in later ages of these subjects.