The canes are the revealing sign of aging that men and women have tried to cover during generations. However, scientists are one step closer to finding a way to revert the canes without having to go regularly to the hairdressers.
A team of researchers discovered that the mother cells, that can convert into many different cell types, have the unique ability to move between the growth compartments in the hair follicles.
As we age, these mother cells are trapped in a compartment called protuberance of the hair follicle. These “stuck” cells cannot regenerate into pigment cells, which helps the hair maintain its colorwhat makes the hair turn gray.
And the hallazgo could lead to a treatment that allows people maintain your natural hair color without having to dye it. The scientists, from the Grossman School of Medicine at the University of New York, made the discovery after studying the aged hair in rats.
They focused on the mother cells of melanocytes, which are also found in humans and control hair color.
During normal hair growth, these cells move between the compartments of the developing hair follicle and are exposed to different levels of protein signals.
As the hair ages, it falls out and then grows again repeatedly, An ever-increasing number of these mother cells get stuck and are not exposed to certain proteins, which prevents them from converting into pigment cells. The lack of pigment cells means that the hair will lose its color, what will result in the canes that many people fear.
El studiopublished in the journal Nature, revealed that the number of hair follicles with “stuck” mother cells increased from 15 per cent in young hair to more than half in older hair. “Our study sums up our basic understanding of how the mother cells of melanocytes work to dye hair”, says the studio’s principal investigator, Qi Sun.
The mechanisms just discovered plant the possibility that the same fixed positioning of the mother cells of melanocytes can exist in humans. “If so, it presents a potential way to reverse or prevent the aging of human hair by helping the stuck cells to move again between the compartments of the hair follicle in development”.
The team now plans to investigate the potential means to restore the mobility of these mother cells, or moving them physically between compartments where they can produce pigment and prevent the hair from turning gray.
Principal Investigator Mayumi Uti said: “This is the loss of the chameleonic function in the mother cells of the melanocytes, which can be responsible for aging and the loss of hair color”.
“These hallmarks suggest that the motility of the mother cells of the melanocytes and the reversible differentiation are key to maintaining healthy and colored hair”. Previous investigations have found that women who “arries” to have canes and stop having their hair cut are ashamed and seen as less competent.
The experts surveyed 80 women, the majority between 40 and 60 years old, who formed part of the Facebook groups on the transition to the canes. Some women reported that they considered themselves more fragile and they offered seats in public transport after clearing their legswhile others said they felt they had to pay more attention to their makeup and clothes to compensate for their potential appearance as a bigger man. (I)
