Alopecia Areata in a Pediatric Patient with Delayed Maternal Manifestation: A Case Report
June 2026
in “
Research Square
”
TLDR Alopecia areata may be influenced by both genetics and environment, requiring family monitoring and addressing stress and infections.
This case report discusses a 6-year-old girl with alopecia areata (AA) and her mother, who developed AA 16 years later, highlighting the genetic and environmental factors involved in the disease. The delay in onset between the mother and daughter suggests a multifactorial inheritance model with incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity, indicating that genetic predisposition alone is insufficient for AA manifestation. The report underscores the importance of family monitoring, genetic counseling, and addressing environmental factors such as stress and infections to potentially influence disease onset and progression. Future research should focus on genetic and immune profiling to improve understanding and prevention strategies.
