To keep the color of your hair, it is better not to undergo too much stress. This is partly responsible for the premature arrival of white hair, according to a study by researchers from the universities of São Paulo (Brazil) and Harvard (United States) published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
By carrying out experiments on mice with dark hair, subjected to intense stress, they became completely white in a few weeks, relays the BBC . Old age is therefore not the only criterion causing a change in hair color.
Treatment soon in progress?
The appearance of white hair is stimulated by the part of the nervous system that manages breathing and heartbeat. Following the secretion of norepinephrine, pigment stem cells are overly stimulated. However, it is these cells, at the base of the follicles, which produce the hair pigment. In the event of repeated stress, the cells disappear permanently. The effect is radical on hair pigmentation.
"The harmful impact of the stress that we discovered went beyond what I had imagined," explains Professor Ya-Chieh Hsu, co-author of the study. "After only a few days, all the stem cells that regenerated the pigments were lost," the author told the BBC . She adds that once these cells have disappeared, regeneration of the pigment is no longer possible.
The research team wishes to go further in the study of the phenomenon. She would like to imagine a treatment for humans, which would “stop or reverse the negative aspect of stress,” concludes the researcher.
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