The research, led by researchers at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, focused on cells in the skin of mice and humans called melanocyte stem cells.
There are special stem cells that are uniquely able to pass between the growth chambers of the follicles.
These cells lose their ability to move with age, which eventually leads to gray hair.
Hair color is regulated by whether these stem cells, which are constantly proliferating in hair follicles, receive a signal to mature; Because she is mature melanocytes; The cells produce the protein pigments that are responsible for hair color.
According to a study summarizing research findings, stem cells in hair follicles malfunction as hair ages and may lose their ability to maintain hair color.
Scientists have suggested that if the same fixed location of melanocyte stem cells can exist in humans, then by promoting the movement of stuck cells back in
It may become possible to reverse or prevent graying in the future.
Researchers have discovered that during normal hair growth, melanocyte stem cells continually move between parts of the growing hair follicle. In these parts, stem cells receive signals that influence their maturation.
Melanocyte stem cells switch from a more primitive stem cell state to the next level of maturity depending on where they are located. As hair ages, falls out, and then grows back, an increasing number of stem cells become trapped in the hair follicle–according to researchers’ findings in Watchman.
