It is well-known that human hair gradually becomes sparse with age. But why exactly this phenomenon happened? A new study has opened this mystery: aging turns the hair follicle stem cells to epidermal keratinocytes gradually so that the hair follicles have lost the ability to grow hair.
Experiments on mice conducted by researchers from Japan and other countries showed that with age increasing, the DNA of hair follicle stem cells continue to be damaged which leads to damage of collagen digestion of a kind of cell called Collagen 17A1, and the damage of these proteins in turn results in the phenomenon that hair follicle stem cells translate into epidermal keratinocytes and shed. This makes the hair follicles gradually shrink and eventually completely enter into the epidermis, thus losing the ability to regenerate hair. If Collagen 17A1 is overexpressed, the transformation of hair follicle stem cells into epidermal keratinocytes would be suppressed. The researchers subsequently compared the hair follicles situation of women in different ages. They found that with age, hair follicles actually getting smaller and the content of Collagen 17A1 is also reduce, indicating that hair sparse caused by aging is also due to this mechanism. The study is published in the latest issue of the journal Science.
This current issue of the journal Science also reported another research relevant to hair growth. Hair follicle stem cell would alternately enter into two stages of growing and dormant and there would be no new hair grows out in dormant stage. Researchers from the United States found that, Foxc1 transcription factor is capable of regulating this cycle of hair follicle stem cells, and disrupting the transition between the two states will interfere with its expression. Both studies will help us to better understand the growth of hair.
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