Hyperactivation of Sympathetic Nerves Drives Depletion of Melanocyte Stem Cells

June 2020 in “ Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ”

Iwei Yeh

sympathetic nervous system melanocyte stem cells norepinephrine hair graying stem cell proliferation stem cell differentiation

TLDR Stress causes hair graying by overactivating nerves that deplete color-giving stem cells.

In 2020, Zhang B and colleagues conducted a study, published in Nature, investigating the scientific link between stress and hair graying. The researchers found that various types of stress led to hair graying in mice. The mechanism behind this was found to be the hyperactivation of the sympathetic nervous system, which resulted in the stimulation of melanocyte stem cells by norepinephrine. This stimulation caused these stem cells to proliferate, differentiate, and eventually deplete, leading to hair graying. The study was praised for its well-designed experiments and significant findings.

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research Hyperactivation of Sympathetic Nerves Drives Depletion of Melanocyte Stem Cells

June 2020 in “Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature”

Stress causes hair graying by overactivating nerves that deplete color-giving stem cells.