Study the Effect of Inflammatory Cytokines on Hair Loss

Background: Hair loss, a frequently reported problem, severely impacts the quality of life of patients; diffuse hair loss (DHL) is nonscarring reversible hair that falls out all over the scalp and is distressing to patients and affects both females and males at any age; Most of the time, the reason for hair loss is unclear, several studies have shown cytokine causes inflammation in the hair follicles promotes the shift from the growth phase to the resting phase and has been linked to the advancement of hair loss. Objectives: We aimed to assess the association between inflammation and diffuse hair loss by measuring inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α in DHL and healthy controls. Methodology: Serum concentrations of IL-6 and TNF- α were evaluated in 96 patients with DHL and 53 healthy controls aged between 16-42 years. Results: Patients with diffuse hair loss showed considerably higher blood concentrations of IL-6 and TNF-α compared to healthy controls. (mean IL-6: 20.339±2.893 vs 18.122±4.395 pg/ml p value=0.001*; TNF-α: 48.902±12.987 vs 25.616±7.083 pg/ml p value=0.001*). There were significant positive correlations between serum IL-6, TNF-α, and diffuse hair loss. Conclusion: Our study shows a statistically significant positive with a role of immune system activation in DHL pathogenesis.