A new stem cell approach through the use of wavelength lasers might have discovered why humans lose their hair. Rui Yi, a professor of pathology at Northwestern University, is now setting out to answer the question.
Stem Cell Technologies
According to the Straits Times, a generally accepted hypothesis regarding stem cells notes that they replenish tissues and organs, which include hair, but they will then eventually be exhausted and then even die in place. This particular process is seen as quite an integral part of the aging process.
Stem cells reportedly play a huge role when it comes to the growth of human and mice hair. The director of the Black Family Stem Cell Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine located at Mount Sinai, Sarah Millar, gave a statement. Luminate Medicine has been able to find a way to avoid chemotherapy hair loss.
Sarah Millar on Yi's Paper
Sarah Millar wasn't reportedly involved in Yi's paper and explained that the cells gave rise to the hair shaft as well as its sheath. After a period of time, which is short for human body hair and still much longer for hair on a person's head, the follicles then become inactive, and its lower part starts to degenerate. Sarah Millar's discovery can be found on Eurekalert.
The hair shaft then stops its growth and starts to shed, which is only to be replaced by a brand new strand of hair while the cycle repeats. While the rest of the follicles then die, a collection of stem cells still remains in the bulge and are ready to start turning into hair cells in order to grow a strand of hair.
Animal Tissue at Different Ages Used
Researchers who study aging usually take chunks of tissue from animals at different ages and examine the changes. There are, however, two drawbacks to this approach, according to Yi. There has also been a relation made between hair loss and teeth.
First, it was noted that the tissue was already dead. It is also not clear as to what led to the charges that are reportedly observed or what will then come after them. He then decided that the team would use a different approach.
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Research Findings
They reportedly watched the growth of other individual hair follicles in the ears of mice through the use of a long-wavelength laser that will be able to penetrate deep into the tissue. They then start labeling hair follicles along with green fluorescent protein, anesthetizing the animals in order for them to not move.
They then put their ear under the microscope and started to go back and forth to watch what was happening to the exact same hair follicle. The result showed that when the animals got older and grey, they started to lose their hair, their stem cells also started to escape their own small homes in the bulge.
The cells then changed their shapes from around to certain amoeba-like and squeezed out of small holes in the follicles. They then reportedly recovered their normal shapes and started darting away.
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Written by Urian B.
