Impaired Melanocyte Stem Cell Migration Implicated in Hair Graying

Reading around the present state of research into the aging of skin and hair provides interesting insights into the gap between knowledge and understanding in complex biological systems. At this point, there is no complete understanding as to how skin and hair age, even while there is an enormous amount of data on the cellular biology and behavior on all of the different cell types involved. This is a microcosm of the bigger picture of aging in general: while well-researched lists of fundamental forms of damage and change exist, showing exactly how those processes interact to produce the decline of a larger system remains a work in progress. So while researchers understand a great deal about the building blocks involved in hair turning gray with age, much remains to be accomplished when it comes to describing how those building blocks lead to the outcome. This is why it is important to advocate for more attention to be given to intervention, in parallel with observation. The state of the art in biotechnology allows the research community to repair the forms of damage thought to cause aging. We should do that, and not wait around for greater understanding of a highly complex system to emerge from observation. Further, it is likely that repair therapies will provoke that greater understanding, at least to the degree that they are successful. See, for example, the greatly increased understanding of cellular senescence in aging that has followed the development of senolyti...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs