Got frizzy, misbehaving hair? Blame the Frizzled gene

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Can't get that unruly cowlick in your hair to lie down? Don't fret, it's probably just a genetic miscue. <br/><br/>Turns out, there's a gene that directs hair to grow

Tuesday, May 25th 2004, 6:03 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Can't get that unruly cowlick in your hair to lie down? Don't fret, it's probably just a genetic miscue.

Turns out, there's a gene that directs hair to grow in nice tidy patterns. Take the gene away and the hair doesn't know which way to grow.

Research reported Monday looked at a gene aptly called Frizzled 6, which controls hair patterns in mice. Mice without the gene had strange patterns, including whorls of hair on their hind feet, back of the head and chest. Some also had tufts and ridges in the hair on their head.

Humans ``have a gene that's virtually identical, so there's every reason to think it would be similar in effect, though that is, at this point, unknown,'' said researcher Jeremy Nathans of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

That doesn't mean a simple bad hair day can be blamed on the gene, or lack of it, however. Rather, it would result in a permanent differences in the hair, such as a cowlick or unusual whorl.

Indeed, Nathans doesn't like the phrase ``bad hair.''

``These are the things that make life interesting,'' he said. ``We're all different.''

The study, published in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, noted that Frizzled genes were first discovered in fruit flies where they control wing hair and bristle patterns.

On most flies, bristles are all pointing in an orderly way, but without the gene they don't know which way to point, Nathans explained. The gene was named because flies without it look like they're having a bad bristle day, he said.

Complex hair patterns occur in many mammals including guinea pigs, prairie dogs, horses, pigs, cattle, dogs and humans, so the researchers wondered whether the same genes were at work.

That led them to study the effect of deleting the Frizzled 6 gene in mice, which produced unusual hair patterns although the hair follicles looked normal under the microscope.

The bottom line of the study, Nathans explained, ``is there's a system of patterning during development of the embryo.''

This system can be seen by looking at the pattern of hairs, but underneath are many other pattern systems that are not obvious from the surface, he explained.

For example, Nathans said, the Frizzled 3 gene is active in determining the pathways of nerves, which need to know which way to grow to allow them to connect properly to do their work.

He also noted that a study last year linked human hair patterns with whether a person is left- or right-handed, suggesting the same genetic factors may play a role.

The research was financed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.