According to a recent study published in the Genes & Development journal, scientists have managed to pinpoint the cells which cause hair to turn gray and the process of balding to take place in mice. University of Texas researchers at the Southwestern Medical Center stumbled on the explanation for the graying and balding processes by accident, while in the process of studying tumors that were growing on nerves as a result of a rare genetic disease.
As it turns out, a protein called KROX20 turns the skin cells on which become hair shafts. This, in turn, causes cells to produce “stem cell factor,” which is another protein. In the mouse subjects, these two proteins were important for graying and baldness, and when the researchers removed the cells which produced KROX20, the hair growth in the subjects stopped and they eventually went bald. Furthermore, when they removed the stem cell factor gene, the hair on the mice turned white.
“Although this project was started in an effort to understand how certain kinds of tumors form, we ended up learning why hair turns gray and discovering the identity of the cell that directly gives rise to hair,” explained Dr. Lu Le, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and lead researcher, in a press release. Additional research is yet required to understand whether this process will work similarly in human subjects, and the researchers plan to begin studying just that. “With this knowledge, we hope in the future to create a topical compound or to safely deliver the necessary gene to hair follicles to correct these cosmetic problems,” he explained.
