Hair can turn gray in a person during periods of stress, and after its completion, their normal pigmentation can return, said researchers at Columbia University in the USA. Writes about this magazine eLife.
Scientists took hair samples from 14 volunteers and divided them into cylinders – 50 micrometers high. Hair grows to this height in an hour. Participants in the study kept diaries, which helped to correlate the desired dates with certain events.
The changes in pigment content that the scientists tracked fell with increasing stress levels in humans. In some of the volunteers, the amount of pigment returned to nome. However, this did not always happen with age.
It was found that graying is accompanied by a change in proteins that are associated with the energy metabolism of the cell, the work of mitochondria and their reaction to the oxidative process. As a result, it is the dysfunction of mitochondria in hair follicle cells that researchers call the underlying cause of graying (loss of pigmentation).
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