WHY HAIR TURNS GREY WITH AGE? CAN WE PREVENT IT?

Mon 08 May 2023:

The majority of us dye our greying hair, which is the first few prominent signs of ageing. We can’t stop or reverse the natural phenomenon of ageing (the Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a dream, not the real world), but we can definitely work on preventing the signs to some extent.

A group of scientists believe they have found a mechanism for greying hair and according to them, treatment could help develop a treatment to alter cells so that the process can be reversed or halted. In a new study, scientists say that stem cells may get stuck and lose their ability to maintain hair colour as time passes.

Previously, experts noted that greying hair is caused when melanin-producing stem cells stop functioning properly. Some experts also said that reversible hypopigmentation of the hair can be seen in nutritional deficiencies protein-energy malnutrition and diseases of chronic loss of protein. It is also known that copper and iron deficiency also can cause greying of hair.

But what if we can stop the greying of hair?

Stem cells, which can differentiate into many different cell types, have an unusual ability to switch between growth compartments in follicles. With age, these cells lose their ability to move, resulting in greyness. Published Wednesday in the journal Nature, a new study in mice chalks out the issues that are linked to greying of our hair. The story is done on mice, but it has implications for people as the research was focused on cells called melanocyte stem cells, or McSCs.

A quoted by The New York Times, Mayumi Ito, an author of the study and a dermatology professor at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine: “This is a really big step toward understanding why we grey.” Scientists have suggested that there could be a way in future to reverse or prevent grey hair if the findings hold true for humans.

As quoted by The Guardian, the study’s lead investigator, Qi Sun, who is a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health, said: “The newfound mechanisms raise the possibility that the same fixed-positioning of melanocyte stem cells may exist in humans.”

“If so, it presents a potential pathway for reversing or preventing the greying of human hair by helping jammed cells to move again between developing hair follicle compartments,” Qi added.

-NEWS AGENCIES

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