Endocrine Abstracts

Apart from some protective roles, the primary function of human hair is to communicate information about a person's age and state of sexual maturity. Therefore, major differences from the norm, such as hirsutism and balding, often cause psychological distress.Androgens are the main regulator of changes in human hair growth. They stimulate the production of pigmented terminal hair in many areas after puberty, including pubic and axillary hair in both sexe...

The hair follicle is the most prominent cutaneous mini-organ and one of the defining features of mammalian species. Hair follicle development is driven and controlled by a series of precisely choreographed, reciprocal epithelial?mesenchymal interactions involving secreted growth factors, differentially expressed growth factor receptors and transcription factors, adhesion molecules and changes in the extracellular matrix milieu. Key amongst these signalling pathways during earl...

Hirsutism is the appearance of terminal hairs in areas of the body that are exclusively 'masculine'. Hirsutism is primarily a sign of an underlying endocrine abnormality, androgen excess. The principal causes of androgen excess are: the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in 80-90%, idiopathic hirsutism (IH) in 5-10%, the Hyperandrogenic-Insulin Resistant-Acanthosis Nigricans (HAIRAN) syndrome in 2-4%, 21-hydroxylase deficient non-classic adrenal hyperplasia (NCAH) in 1-10%, and ...