Researcher may have identified out what causes grey hair, raising the possibility that there will soon be a cure to stop or reverse the natural ageing process.
The study, which was published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, demonstrates that as people age, some stem cells that can travel between growth zones in hair follicles become stuck and lose their capacity to mature and preserve hair colour.
The study concentrated on melanocyte stem cells, specialised skin cells found in both mice and humans. These cells may eventually stop moving as they once did when hair ages, sheds, and regrows, making it impossible for them to reach the stage of the process where colour is developed.
According to a news clause from study main scientist Qi Sun, a postdoctoral associate at NYU Langone Health, "our study adds to our fundamental knowledge concerning how melanocyte stem cells work to tint hair." The newly discovered methods suggest that humans may also have melanocyte stem cells that are fixedly situated. If so, it offers a potential method for reversing or stopping the greying of human hair by allowing congested cells to pass through the compartments that nurture hair follicles once more.
According to Mayumi Ito, the study's senior investigator, "it is the loss of chameleon-like properties in melanocyte stem cells that may be responsible for greying and loss of hair colour."
In a statement to CBS News, Ito, a professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology and the Department of Cell Biology at NYU Langone Health, explained that the study suggests melanocyte stem cells are mobile but can only start regeneration of melanocytes — which produce hair pigmentation — when they are present in a specific area within the hair follicle called the hair germ compartment.
"Our study suggests that moving melanocytes to a proper location within the hair follicle may help prevent hair greying," Ito wrote, adding they "look forward to investigating to what extent our theory is applicable to humans."