
Reversal of hair greying following adipose mesenchymal stem cell transplantation - DiabloD3
http://www.hoajonline.com/stemcells/2054-717X/2/3
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michaelhoffman
This journal is not indexed in MEDLINE or PubMed and so would not generally be
considered a legitimate part of the biomedical literature.

The publisher (Herbert Publications, Hyderabad, India) is also on Beall's List
of "Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access
publishers":

[http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/](http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/)

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mrob
Reversal of hair greying is definitely possible. I'm in my early 30s, and I
have a few grey hairs. Sometimes I find one that started growing as grey and
turned back to brown at the root. I've never heard of this happening to
anybody else. I have a few saved as proof.

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fmela
Happens to me, too.

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ginsurge
Me too! And my partner.

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Merem
Same here. I guess it's not that uncommon.

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et2o
The level of evidence here is not really believable in my opinion. It seems to
essentially consist of two kind-of blurry sets of before and after pictures.

I'm not a stem cell biologist by any means, but I'm also surprised their IRB
approved this... IV mesenchymal stem cells for supranuclear palsy? Hope they
are following them for neoplasms...

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michaelhoffman
> The trial was conducted as per Guidelines given by Indian Council of Medical
> Research (ICMR). Approvals for clinical trials were obtained from
> Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) and Institutional Stem Cell Research
> Committee (ISCRC).

Given that that none of the authors are at a recognized _institution_ , I
would really like to know which committees they are talking about.

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reasonattlm
It is amazing how much more people care about their hair and skin in
comparison to, say, their blood vessels when it comes to aging.

Some more on the topic of hair and stem cells in the papers and publicity
materials linked below. Note that first generation stem cell transplantation
in most cases appears to work largely through signaling. The transplanted
cells don't stick around for long, but suppress inflammation and oxidative
stress, encourage regeneration, etc, by changing the behavior of native cells.
Oxidative stress reduction seems a plausible mechanism for reversing graying
to some degree as a result of stem cell transplants.

[http://www.fasebj.org/content/20/9/1567.abstract](http://www.fasebj.org/content/20/9/1567.abstract)

Oxidative stress is generated by a multitude of environmental and endogenous
challenges such as radiation, inflammation, or psychoemotional stress. It also
speeds the aging process. Graying is a prominent but little understood feature
of aging. Intriguingly, the continuous melanin synthesis in the growing
(anagen) hair follicle generates high oxidative stress. We therefore
hypothesize that hair bulb melanocytes are especially susceptible to free
radical-induced aging.

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18573711](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18573711)

"Hair graying is one of the prototypical signs of human aging, but its
mechanism is largely unknown. To elucidate the mechanism of hair graying, we
investigated gene expression related to melanogenesis in human hair. The key
molecules in melanogenesis, microphthalmia-associated transcription factor-M
(MITF-M), Sox10, Pax3, tyrosine related protein-1 (TRP-1), and tyrosinase,
were absent or greatly reduced in the bulbs of white hair compared to black
hair. Melanocyte stem cells (MSCs) or melanocytes express markers for neural
crest cells, Sox10, Pax3, and MITF-M. Taken together, our data suggest that
hair graying is caused by defective migration of MSCs into the bulb area of
hair."

[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/foas-
gha05031...](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/foas-
gha050313.php)

"People who are going gray develop massive oxidative stress via accumulation
of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes our hair to bleach
itself from the inside out. The build up of hydrogen peroxide was caused by a
reduction of an enzyme that breaks up hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen
(catalase). Hair follicles could not repair the damage caused by the hydrogen
peroxide because of low levels of enzymes that normally serve this function
(MSR A and B). Further complicating matters, the high levels of hydrogen
peroxide and low levels of MSR A and B, disrupt the formation of an enzyme
(tyrosinase) that leads to the production of melanin in hair follicles.
Melanin is the pigment responsible for hair color, skin color, and eye color.
The report shows that this massive accumulation of hydrogen peroxide can be
remedied with a proprietary treatment developed by the researchers described
as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified
pseudocatalase). What's more, the study also shows that the same treatment
works for the skin condition, vitiligo."

~~~
junto
> It is amazing how much more people care about their hair and skin in
> comparison to, say, their blood vessels when it comes to aging.

It is amazing, but not surprising. People are vastly more reactive to the
things that provide immediate feedback.

What we see, hear, touch and taste provide feedback that is simple for people
to process and understand.

Appreciation of long term future loss or damage is not programmed into humans
particularly well. We are biologically designed to worry about the present, we
dwell on the past (far too much), and the future is something that might never
happen (the old adage; you might be hit by a bus).

We see this every day with people that smoke cigarettes. Every single smoker
knows that smoking is going to put them in an early grave, but they still
continue, because the short term pleasure to the senses, outweighs the
perceived long term risk.

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noir_lord
> Every single smoker knows that smoking is going to put them in an early
> grave, but they still continue, because the short term pleasure to the
> senses, outweighs the perceived long term risk.

Hits home.

Quit 5 years ago, knew all the risks, evidence etc none of that worked, my mum
a heavy smoker ending up in the cardiac unit at 54 was what finally did it
(turned out to be nothing serious), I stopped on my 30th birthday and never
touched another one.

Had my mum not ended up in hospital the week before my 30th birthday (which
does make you take stock) I think I'd still be smoking today.

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jtblin
True except there is not really short term pleasure with cigarettes smoking,
just a temporary relief of craving.

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girvo
I don't know, even after smoking for a few years I could still "feel" it,
beyond just the cessation of craving; it's the same feeling I get when I use
nicotine lozenges sublingually for focus (which I do at most once a week to
avoid tolerance)

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drpgq
Interesting that the study was done in India.

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WalterSear
I'd say it was a warning sign.

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okonomiyaki3000
I had a grey hair once but I changed it back to normal through sheer force of
will.

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bloomingfractal
Hacker news is definitely not the best place to engage in discussions about
medical papers.

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kyberias
This is a biology paper, not a medical paper.

