1 of 1 New study suggests how to prevent hair graying — Photo: Reproduction/ RPC New study suggests how to prevent hair graying — Photo: Reproduction/ RPC
Gray hair is one of those things that we accept as inevitable and that hits us all as we get older. Because of this, many people have probably never thought about what the process that turns gray hair looks like.
Now, however, scientists think they’ve discovered the mechanism by which hair turns white, which could help develop a treatment to alter the cells and stop this process.
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A new study published in the journal Nature and coordinated by researchers at the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University (NYU) suggests that stem cells capable of transforming into many different cell types are the have a unique ability to move between the growth compartments of hair follicles where they can become trapped as the hair strand ages, causing them to lose their ability to mature and retain their color.
The study focused on melanocyte stem cells (McSC) present in human and mouse skin. Scientists have discovered that skin color depends on McSCs, which, although they serve no specific function, continue to divide in the hair follicles, where they receive the signal to transform into mature cells that produce the first protein pigments responsible for hair color are.
Research suggests that as we age and through successive cycles of hair growth, shedding and regrowth, more and more McSCs become trapped in the cellular compartment called the hair follicle ridge.
These cells remain in this compartment without entering the transit amplification state — the transformation between a stem cell’s most primitive state and the next phase of its maturation — and are unable to migrate to the predicted location within this compartment, where the signal is located would get to transform into pigmentproducing cells.
Undo or prevent whitening
If the study results translate to humans, the researchers believe it could offer ways to prevent or reverse the appearance of gray hair.
“Our study advances the fundamental knowledge of how melanocyte stem cells color hair,” explains Qi Sun, one of the study’s principal investigators and a postdoctoral researcher at NYU’s Langone Health Center.
“The new mechanisms raise the possibility that this same fixed position of melanocyte stem cells could also exist in humans. If this were the case, it would present a potential way to reverse or prevent the human hair aging mechanism by helping trapped cells move back between compartments of the developing hair follicle,” he noted.
The study’s coordinator, Mayumi Ito, a physician and professor in the Department of Dermatology Ronald O. Perelman, which is part of the Department of Cell Biology Langone Health at NYU, suggests that the loss of chameleonic function of melanocyte stem cells is the underlying cause Cause could be graying and bleaching of hair.
According to Ito, the research results indicate that the mobility and reversible differentiation of melanocyte stem cells are fundamental for healthy and pigmented hair.
Using 3D intravital imaging techniques and scRNAseq singlecell RNA sequencing, scientists were able to follow cell movements in near realtime throughout the hair follicle aging process.
The researchers set out to conduct further studies on how to restore the McSC’s ability to move or return them to their original location within the germinal compartment, from where they can produce pigments.