A study published in the journal Nature paves the way for new treatments to keep the color of our hair unchanged
Woman with gray hair (Photo Ansa)
Goodbye gray hair. A study published in the journal Nature by the researchers of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine described the mechanism of their occurrence paving the way for new treatments that will lead to keeping the color of our hair unchanged despite the passing of the years.
I study
American researchers have found that the iThe graying of the hair is due to some stem cells which lose the ability to move up and down in the hair follicles, which is necessary for them to mature into melanocytes and produce pigment. This yo-yo mechanism, first discovered in the skin of mice, may also be present in humans. In their experiments on mice, thanks to techniques for live visualization in 3D and technologies for RNA sequencingresearchers were able to follow and track cells in real time as they aged and moved between compartments of the hair follicle, maturing and then returning again stem.
All the fault of some stem cells
The collected data show that col Over time, as hair falls out and grows back, more and more stem cells lose their unique ability to move up and down the hair follicle. In practice they remain trapped in the swelling of the suprabulbar area, do not mature and are unable to descend into the germinal area of the bulb where the Wnt protein would have induced them to transform into melanocytes which produce pigment.
Looking for new strategies
“These results suggest that the motility and reversible differentiation of melanocyte stem cells are essential for maintaining healthy and colored hair“, says the study coordinator, It’s smelly. For this reason, his research group intends to develop new strategies to restore the motility of stem cells or to move them directly into the germinal compartment of the follicle where they can produce pigment.