Alopecia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alopecia, including details on hair loss, baldness, treatment, causes, prevention.

Effect of thioredoxin reductase 1 on glucocorticoid receptor activity in human outer root sheath cells.

Sohn KC, Jang S, Choi DK, Lee YS, Yoon TJ, Jeon EK, Kim KH, Seo YJ, Lee JH, Park JK, Kim CD

Department of Dermatology and Research Institute for Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Chungnam National University, 640 Daesa-dong, Daejeon 301-040, Republic of Korea.

Alopecia areata (AA) is a common disease of patchy hair loss on the scalp that can progress to cover the entire scalp and eventually the entire body. Intralesional injection of corticosteroids is the first-line therapy for adult patients, however some patients do not respond to glucocorticoid treatment effectively. To delineate the molecular mechanism underlying glucocorticoid insensitivity, we examined the expression of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1). In some case of glucocorticoid-resistant AA patients, the expression of TrxR1 was decreased in outer root sheath (ORS). We then investigated the effect of TrxR1 on GR activity using recombinant adenoviruses. Overexpression of TrxR1 markedly increased GR activity in ORS cells cultured in vitro. In addition, TrxR1 protected GR activity against H(2)O(2). Finally, TrxR1-enhanced GR activity was significantly inhibited by the overexpression of dominant negative form of Trx (Trx(C32S/C35S)). These results suggest that decreased TrxR1 may be one putative cause for glucocorticoid resistance in AA, through the impact on intracellular redox system.

Published 5 April 2007 in Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 356(3): 810-5.
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