Is Your Gut's Microbiota Making You Bald?

Celiac.com 05/14/2018 - An imbalance or defect in gut bacteria function may be a major cause of hair loss and pattern baldness. Pattern baldness (alopecia areata) affects approximately 1.7 per cent of the population and we still don’t know precisely what causes it. In addition to promoting a healthy digestive tract, our gut bacteria play an important function in our overall health. 

Recent experiments with antibiotics and bacteria-free mice reveal how a single a single gut bacteria, Lactobacillus murinus, could cause pattern baldness by triggering deficiencies in biotin. Biotin, vitamin B7, is a crucial vitamin. Biotin deficiency can lead to skin disease and hair loss. Some bacteria in our gut produces biotin, while other bacteria breaks down and consumes biotin. Biotin deficiency is most often seen in patients with serious conditions, such as celiac disease, but it can also be common among pregnant women. Previous research has shown that bacteria-free mice that lack biotin in their diet, develop mild hair loss (alopecia). 

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Could an imbalance or defect in gut bacteria function be a major cause of hair loss and pattern baldness? To determine if the underlying cause of hairless might be an imbalance of our gut bacteria, a team of Japanese scientists conducted experiments with antibiotics and bacteria-free mice to see if variations gut bacteria might cause pattern baldness by influencing biotin levels.

The team first fed laboratory mice a diet with and without biotin, but saw no impact on hair loss. They then repeated the experiment, but this time they also gave the mice a long course of antibiotics to destroy the balance of bacteria in their gut.  The laboratory mice on a biotin-free diet coupled with antibiotics saw an increase in a particular gut bacteria that corresponded to patten hair loss, as was previously shown in bacteria-free mice. By studying what had happened in the gut bacteria of these mice, the scientists discovered that a particular type of lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus murinus, had expanded after the antibiotic treatment.

When the team fed bacteria-free mice with Lactobacillus murinus, they saw that the hair loss became even worse and the mice became almost entirely bald. Further tests followed, in which regular mice and bacteria-free mice received a regular diet with normal levels of biotin, but added Lactobacillus murinus. These mice showed no hair loss at all. Direct injections of biotin also stopped hair loss; although the team did concede that skin bacteria could also play a role.

The discovery that gut bacteria and diet to influence hair loss creates new avenues for treating baldness and hair loss simply by adjusting gut microbiota. It’s possible that probiotic dietary supplements can be used to influence gut bacteria, and prevent the biotin-eating bacteria now known to cause hair loss. Stay tuned for news on the role of gut bacteria in hair loss, and on any new treatment approaches to hair loss and alopecia that may result.

Their results appear in the scientific journal Cell Reports.