Male androgenetic alopecia is the most common cause of alopecia in men. The pathogenesis involves androgen-induced minaturisation of terminal hairs into vellus hairs in affected regions of the scalp. Some degree of follicular minaturisation and consequential hair loss is universal and is considered to be a physiological secondary sexual characteristic. Various studies evaluated serum ferritin level and serum vitamin d levels in patients with alopecia. Most studies done on female patients with alopecia with very constracting results.Very few studies evaluated serum ferritin level and serum vitamin D levels in males with androgenetic alopecia , so we tried to spot light in that issue. The aim of this study is to measure serum vitamin D and serum ferritin levels in patients with male pattern hair loss compared to control. This study was conducted in Dermatology Department of Fayoum University Hospital. 60 male subjects were included, 30 patients had androgenetic alopecia and 30 apparently healthy volunteers as control group. Our results show that vitamin D was statistically significantly lower in patients with androgenetic alopecia. While there was no statistically significant difference in Ferritin levels between both groups.

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Background: Malnutrition due to protein deficiency is an emerging problem worldwide particularly in the developing countries. Reproductive system development and growth depends on maintaining healthy nutrition especially in childhood and adolescence.Objective: The present study aims at studying the possible protective efficacy of carnosine in testicular atrophy, defective spermatogenesis and reduced reproductive performance induced by supplementation of protein deficient diet (PDD) to male rats. Methodology: Forty juvenile male albino rats were allocated into four equal groups; each group is 10 rats (i) normal control rats, (ii) protein deficient diet (PDD) group (received PDD for 75 days and saline intraperitoneal (IP) 5 days/week), (iii) carnosine (CAR) group (received carnosine 250 mg/kg body weight (bw), IP 5 days/week for 75 days); (iv) CAR-PDD group (received PDD for 75 days and carnosine 250 mg/kg body weight (bw), IP 5 days/week).Results: PDD supplementation lead to decreased body and testicular weights, reduced sex hormones and sperm count, motility and vitality (Live: Death ratio). In addition, the PDD-treated group had decreased levels of the antioxidant enzymes as reduced catalase (CAT) and glutathione (GSH) levels in testicular tissue. These toxic effects were accompanied by elevation of the pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Increased proapoptotic marker; caspase-9 and decreased Bcl-2 was also found. On the other hand, CAR co-administration with PDD significantly evaded these effects which were confirmed histologically. Conclusion:CAR could be used as complementary supplements in malnutrition for protection against PDD induced testicular atrophy in male albino rats.