MALE PATTERN BALDNESS CHART

Male Pattern Baldness Chart

Mechanism of Apoptotic Regulation of Follicular Regression Toward Understanding the Molecular Basis for Tissue Remodeling and Regeneration George F. Murphy From Departments of Pathology and Dermatology, The Center for Dermatopathology, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Abstract "There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens." -Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape (1967) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps one of the last outposts of cutaneous biology is the hair follicle. Depending on regional anatomy, the hair shaft in humans often represents either an patchy alopecia male pattern baldness chart adornment or unwanted vestige, and conventional scientific wisdom has regarded the hair follicle to be of little pathophysiological value. Recent data, however, challenge such beliefs and suggest that study of hair follicles may provide new insights into phenomena as diverse as skin immunity, pigmentation, and tissue remodeling and regeneration. Aside from the endometrium, the hair follicle is unique in its ability to display cyclic regression and regeneration. This amazing feat encompasses intimate interplay between mesenchyme and epithelium. It also involves repeated involution and regeneration that originates from a permanent portion of the follicular apparatus and culminates in generation of an amazingly complex postpartum hair loss male pattern baldness chart temporary follicular apparatus capable of manufacture of a pigmented hair shaft. But why do we have follicles, why must they cycle, and what can we learn from this regression and regeneration that has for so long been ignored by the scientific community? Only 150 years ago, Virchow averred in reference to the process of desquamation that the epidermis is ultimately "in itself an inert mass, which is gradually removed."1 Of course, we now know the epidermis to be a factory for manufacture of cytokines and growth factors, and a reservoir for dynamic interactions between keratinocytes, pigment cells, antigen presenting cells, unmyelinated axons, pictures of alopecia male pattern baldness chart and