Scientists from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre have accidentally stumbled upon the cause of grey hair while initially investigating tumour formation.
The root cause of greys has been discovered to be the absence of a certain protein in hair progenitor cells.
The findings, published in Genes & Development, show that KROX20 cells are responsible for the development of hair shafts. These precursor (or progenitor) cells then produce a protein called stem cell factor (SCF), which is essential for hair pigmentation.
Testing on mouse models, scientists explored what happened when they deleted the SCF gene in the hair progenitor cells – the animals’ hair turned grey, then white with age.
Furthermore, when the scientists deleted the KROX20 cells, it caused hair to stop growing completely and the mice became bald.
Lead researcher of the study Lu Le has spoken about their excitement for the discover, and potential to stop the hair ageing process: “Although this project was started in an effort to understand how certain kinds of tumours form, we ended up learning why hair turns grey and discovering the identity of the cell that directly gives rise to hair.
"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."
