Researchers could have found what makes hair turn gray, prompting hope {that a} therapy for stopping or reversing the method might be on the horizon.

Printed Wednesday within the journal Nature, the examine exhibits sure stem cells, which have the flexibility to maneuver between progress compartments in hair follicles, get caught as folks age and lose their means to mature and preserve hair shade.

The analysis centered on cells within the pores and skin of mice which are additionally present in people referred to as melanocyte stem cells. Over time, as hair ages, sheds and grows again, these cells could finally stop to maneuver as they used to, and thus fail to succeed in the a part of the method the place pigment is generated.

“Our examine provides to our fundamental understanding of how melanocyte stem cells work to paint hair,” examine lead investigator Qi Solar, a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Well being, mentioned in a press release. “The newfound mechanisms increase the chance that the identical fixed-positioning of melanocyte stem cells could exist in people. If that’s the case, it presents a possible pathway for reversing or stopping the graying of human hair by serving to jammed cells to maneuver once more between growing hair follicle compartments.”

Research senior investigator Mayumi Ito added, “it’s the lack of chameleon-like operate in melanocyte stem cells that could be accountable for graying and lack of hair shade.”

In a press release to CBS Information, Ito, a professor within the Ronald O. Perelman Division of Dermatology and the Division of Cell Biology at NYU Langone Well being, defined that the examine suggests melanocyte stem cells are cell however can solely begin regeneration of melanocytes — which produce hair pigmentation — when they’re current in a particular space throughout the hair follicle referred to as the hair germ compartment.

“Our examine means that transferring melanocytes to a correct location throughout the hair follicle could assist stop hair greying,” Ito wrote, including they “look ahead to investigating to what extent our concept is relevant to people.”