Stem cell research clarifies how stress affects hair growth
helps humans develop new treatments for hair loss
Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, April 5 (Reporter Zhang Mengran) According to a stem cell study recently published in the British journal Nature, a research team from Harvard University and other institutions in the United States revealed that hormones can inhibit hair growth by regulating hair follicle stem cells. The mechanism behind this phenomenon in mice, and a possible way to reverse this phenomenon has been proposed.
The growth period and resting period of the hair follicle will switch continuously.
Rodent and human studies have shown that stress may affect hair growth-whether it is people’s experience or the consensus of the medical community, mental stress is indeed an important cause of hair loss.
But unfortunately, people have not been clear about the exact relationship between the two.
In order to determine the effect of stress on hair growth, this time, a team including researchers from Harvard University in the United States and the School of Life Sciences at West Lake University in China analyzed in detail how corticosterone (a hormone released by mice under chronic chronic stress) Regulate the activity of mouse hair follicles.
Experiments in mice have shown that when the level of corticosterone increases, the resting period of hair follicles will be prolonged and cannot be regenerated; conversely, if the level of corticosterone decreases, the hair follicle stem cells will be activated and start to grow new hair.
According to the report of the research team, corticosterone can inhibit the activation of hair follicle stem cells by inhibiting the production of a protein called GAS6; and without corticosterone, GAS6 protein has been shown to promote the proliferation of hair follicle stem cells.
The results of this study indicate that restoring the expression of GAS6 protein can reverse the pressure-induced suppression of hair follicle stem cells, and is expected to promote hair regeneration.
In a news and opinion article published at the same time, scientists at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine believe that "this exciting research result lays the foundation for the development of a new method for the treatment of long-term stress-induced hair loss."
However, this opinion article also pointed out that there are still many questions to be answered before the research results are applied to humans.
For example, corticosterone in rodents is thought to correspond to cortisol in humans, but scientists do not know whether cortisol in the human body can also produce the effects observed here.
In addition, the long-term hair growth of mice and humans is different, which may affect the effectiveness of reversing stress-induced hair stem cell suppression.
Editor-in-chief
Hair loss treatment has a big market in today's society. It is generally difficult for the hair lost by ability to grow back by ability. This is really a new trouble for mankind. Studies have shown that stress is one of the causes of hair loss. But how does stress cause hair loss, and how does the lost hair grow back? In order to help answer these questions, experimental animal mice once again appeared, confirming that GAS6 protein can promote the proliferation of hair follicle stem cells. It seems to have understood the way to save "stressed baldness", which is gratifying. However, during the long years from mouse experiments to clinical use, humans still have to keep as much hair as possible. For example, give yourself less pressure and give more respite to the hair follicles.