New Research Reveals The Root Cause Of Graying Hair
Hair tends to turn gray during your forties or even your thirties. But, for certain individuals, this process can begin as early as their twenties.
Some people have chosen to combat their graying locks, using hair dye to conceal the color change. At the same time, others have opted to embrace their gray strands and grow out their roots.
Either way, the main cause of why our hair turns gray as we age has remained unknown until this past month.
A team of researchers from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine recently revealed that trapped stem cells are to blame for our salt and pepper hair.
It all ties back to melanocytes, or McSCs, which are a type of stem cell that has been well-studied.
In fact, they are actually the primary mechanism for the production of the pigment melanin– which gives our eyes and skin color.
But that melanin is also crucial for determining our hair color. Within our hair follicles, McSCs essentially sit and wait until they get a certain protein signal– telling them it is time to become cells. Afterward, these mature cells expel pigment, which results in our hair color.
However, during the study, the researchers realized that McSCs actually travel between microscopic compartments within hair follicles.
A different protein signal might be given to MsSCs by each compartment– which ultimately allows the stem cell to swing between maturity levels.
Yaroslav Astakhov – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
This process is extremely unique– since other stem cells primarily just mature linearly until death.
Yet, MsSCs’ maturity levels are even more complicated than just that. As an individual gets older, and their hair sheds and grows back in a cyclical fashion, more McSCs will actually get stuck in the hair follicle bulge– a specific compartment.
While in the follicle bulge, McSCs will not receive any signals to mature. Plus, the cells are not sent to a different compartment that can send signals.
So, while the jammed cells do allow an individual’s hair to continue growing, the strands do not receive pigmentation– which results in gray locks.
The researchers confirmed this finding using a mouse model. They physically plucked strands of hair from mice for two whole years until they eventually produced mice that had salt-and-pepper-colored hair.
Afterward, they determined that the number of McSCs stuck in the follicle bulge had grown from 15% to almost 50%.
However, among the younger hairs that had not been plucked, the team found that McSCs continued traveling throughout different compartments– which allowed them to receive protein signals and consistently produce brown pigment.
Now, it is important to note that McSCs are not the only determining factor for when hair begins to gray.
“Some people think sun exposure can damage their melanocytes more or less. And hormones can play into it as well,” explained Dr. Jenna Lester, a professor from the University of California, San Francisco.
However, the recent discovery concerning McSCs may present new opportunities to prevent graying by actually moving the cells to their proper location.
On top of that, the finding may help us get one step closer to curing a lot more than a few silver strands– including cancer.
“We are interested in how stem cells residing in our body are regulated to properly maintain our body and how they can reform the tissues when they are lost by injuries,” said Mayumi Ito, the study’s senior investigator.
“When the stem cell regulation goes awry, we will have multiple health problems, including cancers. The melanocyte stem cell system is advantageous to understand this broad issue in medical science, as the malfunction of the system is so visible.”
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Nature, visit the link here.
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