IMMUNE FOLLICULAR GENE EXPRESSION PATTERNS ACROSS THE SEVERITY SPECTRUM OF ALOPECIA AREATA
Keywords:
Alopecia areata, tape-strip RNA sequencing, gene expression, disease severity, immune pathways
Abstract
Alopecia areata (AA) the immune system activates and disrupts the biology of the hair follicle, but it is not clear if there is a consistent change in expression of genes in the scalp as a function of clinical severity. We conducted a secondary analysis of baseline scalp tape-strip RNA expression profiles from 35 subjects (18 healthy controls and 17 AA patients with 4 mild, 7 moderate and 6 severe cases). The gene sets used for interferon/JAK–STAT, cytotoxic T/NK, follicular, and lipid/sebocyte genes were used to calculate expression scores. Patients with AA had higher interferon/JAK–STAT scores, lower follicular scores, and higher cytotoxic T/NK scores when compared to controls. In none of the four scores did the progression of scores across the AA severity groups reach a statistically significant level. In the AA cases, the lipid/sebocyte scores and the cytotoxic T/NK scores were found to be negatively correlated (Spearman’s ρ = −0.713; adjusted q = 0.005). The results showed a clear disease-associated expression pattern, while some of the changes were more ambiguous as they were related to severity. The within-patient association needs to be validated in independent studies using larger severity groups and direct measures of follicular and sebaceous function.
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References
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2.Alghamdi, M., Al-Eitan, L., Aljamal, H., & Abu Kharmah, H. (2024). Genetic polymorphisms of immunity regulatory genes and alopecia areata susceptibility in Jordanian patients. Medicina, 60(10), 1611.
3.Charoensuksira, S., Tantiwong, S., Pongklaokam, J., Hanvivattanakul, S., Surinlert, P., Krajarng, A., ... & Ponnikorn, S. (2024). Disturbance of immune microenvironment in androgenetic alopecia through spatial transcriptomics. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(16), 9031.
4.Chen, A., Shang, L., Ju, Y., & Zhuo, F. (2025). Early prediction of alopecia areata using machine learning modeling of neuro stress immune signatures from multi datasets. Scientific Reports, 16(1), 3823.
5.de Souza, G. T. (2025). Genetic insights into Acne, androgenetic alopecia, and alopecia areata: implications for mechanisms and precision dermatology. Cosmetics, 12(5), 228.
6.Fitzhugh, M. H., Hansen, J. G., Jabbari, A., & Berrebi, K. G. (2025). Pathophysiology of alopecia areata in the pediatric patient. Pediatric dermatology, 42, 24-30.
7.Gay-Mimbrera, J., Gómez-Arias, P. J., Álvarez-Heredia, P., Batista-Duharte, A., Rivera-Ruiz, I., Aguilar-Luque, M., ... & Ruano, J. (2025). Integrated single-cell chromatin and transcriptomic analyses of peripheral immune cells in patients with alopecia areata. Frontiers in Immunology, 16, 1565241.
8.Gómez-Arias, P. J., Gay-Mimbrera, J., Rivera-Ruiz, I., Aguilar-Luque, M., Juan-Cencerrado, M., Mochón-Jiménez, C., ... & Ruano, J. (2024). Association between scalp microbiota imbalance, disease severity, and systemic inflammatory markers in alopecia areata. Dermatology and Therapy, 14(11), 2971-2986.
9.Herrera-Rivero, M., Gossmann, Y., Awasthi, S., Cesarato, N., Ripke, S., Blaumeiser, B., ... & Basmanav, F. B. (2026). Genome-wide association study of atopic and autoimmune comorbidities in alopecia areata. Frontiers in Immunology, 17, 1810658.
10.Hu, B. D., He, H., Bose, S., Gour, D., Nandymazumdar, M., Zhou, J., ... & Guttman-Yassky, E. (2026). Comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic profiling of the scalp from patients with moderate-to-severe alopecia areata. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
11.Kim, M., Del Duca, E., Dahabreh, D., Lozano‐Ojalvo, D., Carroll, B., Manson, M., ... & Guttman‐Yassky, E. (2024). Alopecia areata exhibits cutaneous and systemic OX 40 activation across atopic backgrounds. Allergy, 79(12), 3401-3414.
12.Krajewski, P. K., Jastrząb, B., Szepietowski, J. C., Jankowska‐Konsur, A., & Saceda Corralo, D. (2025). Immune‐Mediated Disorders in Patients With Alopecia Areata: Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis. International journal of dermatology, 64(11), 2029-2037.
13.Liu, H., Yang, S., Xian, H., Liu, Y., Zhang, Y., Chen, Y., ... & Luo, Y. (2025). Unveiling the effect of age and IgE level on alopecia areata: insights from comparative RNAseq analysis. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 81-95.
14.Liu, L., Chen, Y., Chen, J., Xue, Y., Chen, T., Li, Y., ... & Chen, J. (2022). Association between frontal fibrosing Alopecia and Rosacea: Results from clinical observational studies and gene expression profiles. Frontiers in Immunology, 13, 985081.
15.Lu, M., Jia, L., Luo, R., Zhao, C., Zhu, Y., & Li, Y. (2025). Identification of shared genes and immune pathways in COVID-19 and alopecia areata using bioinformatics analysis. Current Science, 5(2), 1956-1970.
16.Mochón‐Jiménez, C., Gay‐Mimbrera, J., Dávila‐Flores, V., He, H., Zhou, J., Rivera‐Ruiz, I., ... & Ruano, J. (2026). Non‐Invasive Scalp Tape‐Strip RNA Sequencing Captures Disease Activity and Treatment‐Response Signatures in Alopecia Areata. Allergy.
17.Monchón-Jiménez, C., Gay-Mimbrera, J., Dávila-Flores, V., He, H., Zhou, J., Rivera-Ruiz, I., Gómez-Arias, P. J., de Luque-Fernández, J., Ungar, B., Guttman-Yassky, E., & Ruano, J. (2025). Supplementary data for: Scalp tape-strip RNA sequencing captures disease and treatment-responsive signatures in alopecia areata (Version 2) [Data set]. Mendeley Data. https://doi.org/10.17632/tv4kjwczty.2
18.Rivera-Ruiz, I., Gay-Mimbrera, J., Gómez-Arias, P. J., Aguilar-Luque, M., Juan-Cencerrado, M., Mochón-Jiménez, C., ... & Ruano, J. (2025 A). Meta-analysis of gene expression reveals the core transcriptomic profile of lesional scalp in alopecia areata. Dermatology and Therapy, 15(10), 2729-2748.
19.Rivera-Ruiz, I., Ungar, B., Dávila-Flores, V., Gay-Mimbrera, J., Gómez-Arias, P. J., Juan-Cencerrado, M., ... & Ruano, J. (2025 B). Unravelling the transcriptomic landscape of primary lymphocytic scarring alopecias: systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Immunology, 16, 1651019.
20.Wang, E. H., Monga, I., Sallee, B. N., Chen, J. C., Abdelaziz, A. R., Perez-Lorenzo, R., ... & Christiano, A. M. (2022). Primary cicatricial alopecias are characterized by dysregulation of shared gene expression pathways. PNAS nexus, 1(3), pgac111.
21.Xiao, Y., Zhang, Y., Deng, S., Yang, X., & Yao, X. (2025). Immune and non-immune interactions in the pathogenesis of androgenetic alopecia. Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology, 68(1), 22.
22.Xiong, J., Chen, G., Liu, Z., Wu, X., Xu, S., Xiong, J., ... & Wu, M. (2023). Construction of regulatory network for alopecia areata progression and identification of immune monitoring genes based on multiple machine-learning algorithms. Precision clinical medicine, 6(2), pbad009.
23.Zhu, J. P., & Jiang, Y. Q. (2025). Immune Regulation in Hair Follicle Protection and Hair Regeneration: Insights from the Collapse of Immune Privilege in Alopecia Areata and Targeted Immunotherapy. International Journal of Dermatology and Venereology, 10-1097.
Published
2026-08-28
How to Cite
Dr. Arjun Mehta, Dr. Sarah Rahman, Dr. Nima Farhadi, & Dr. Chinedu Okafor. (2026). IMMUNE FOLLICULAR GENE EXPRESSION PATTERNS ACROSS THE SEVERITY SPECTRUM OF ALOPECIA AREATA. IJRDO - JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 12(3), 113-125. https://doi.org/10.69980/bs.v12i3.6816
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Articles
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