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What is the androgen receptor and what does it do?
Androgens like testosterone and DHT can only exert effects on cells, such as hair follicles, by connecting or binding with a specific kind of receptor on the cells called the androgen receptor. Think of the relationship between androgens circulating in the blood or within the cells themselves, and the androgen receptor as similar to that of a key and its lock. The key is DHT and the lock is the androgen receptor when it comes to androgenetic alopecia. When a DHT or testosterone molecule binds with an androgen receptor this leads to the formation of an androgen-receptor/androgen complex (ARAC) which then gets transported to the nucleus of the cell. Once inside the cell this ARAC can bind to specific regions of DNA that have what are called androgen-responsive elements (ARE). When an ARAC interacts with an ARE, this sends a message to various genes to either be activated or suppressed. In androgenetic alopecia it is believed that androgen-sensitive hair follicles have genes that when activated cause the follicle miniaturatization process to occur initiating pattern hair loss.
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