The Immunology of Alopecia, and an Alopecia Biobank
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the immunopathogenesis of Alopecia Areata and link to intestinal inflammation, and the establishment of an alopecia biobank
IRAS ID
210147
Contact name
Simon Milling
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Glasgow
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
Alopecia areata (AA) is the most prevalent autoimmune disease and has a lifetime risk of 1.7%. Close examination of the genetics of people with AA has recently revealed that this disease has much in common with other forms of autoimmunity. In particular, the immune system in AA patients is altered. Cells that normally control infections are not properly controlled and attack hair follicles, causing alopecia. Treatments that inhibit these immune responses have been shown to limit the disease in AA patients and in animals with similar symptoms. Little is known about why these immune responses lose control, and begin to cause hair loss. Much has recently been revealed about other similar diseases, including the fact that immune responses made in the intestine have a profound influence on immune-mediated diseases in other parts of the body. Therefore, there are now opportunities to make progress towards understanding the mechanism driving, and possibly combating, alopecia areata (including alopecia totalis (AT) and alopecia universalis (AU)). \n\nWe will be using samples of blood, skin swabs, skin, and stool from volunteers with AA, AT and AU, to investigate how immune cells cause hair loss. Samples will also be sought from individuals with non-inflammatory alopecia (ie. male and female pattern hair loss), for comparison purposes. We will use questionnaires to gather information from volunteers about the type of hair loss they have, the duration of hair loss and other diseases that they may have. This will give us a better understanding of the alopecia that a patient has and also their overall health. Samples of blood and stool collected from healthy volunteers (Glasgow University staff) under separate ethics will also be used for comparison purposes. \n\nInitially, we aim to discover which immune cells are different in people with AA, AU, AT patients compared to the other groups. Then we will investigate how these cells alter the immune response in the blood, skin and intestine of people with these conditions. We will also look at the bacteria within the stool and skin swab samples to see how these may differ and contribute to hair loss in AA, AT, and AU. Together, these tests will allow us to find the factors of the immune system that are most important in causing alopecia areata, alopecia totalis, and alopecia universalis.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 1
REC reference
17/WS/0029
Date of REC Opinion
14 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion