Why Do Mice Turn Gray When a Tiny Engine in Their Hair Cells Breaks?
Mitochondrial deoxyguanosine kinase depletion induced ROS causes melanocyte stem cell exhaustion and hair greying
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Inside hair cells, there's a tiny engine (mitochondria) that needs special fuel made by a helper called DGUOK. If DGUOK is missing, the engine breaks, makes too much rust (ROS), and kills the color-making stem cells. Giving mice a rust cleaner (NAC) helps keep the cells alive and hair colored.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
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A snapshot of a population at a single point in time. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine the direction of cause and effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Inside hair cells, there's a tiny engine (mitochondria) that needs special fuel made by a helper called DGUOK. If DGUOK is missing, the engine breaks, makes too much rust (ROS), and kills the color-making stem cells. Giving mice a rust cleaner (NAC) helps keep the cells alive and hair colored.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 511 / 44
Evidence Score
A snapshot of a population at a single point in time. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine the direction of cause and effect.
Publication
Authors
Zhou K, Wu G, Dong R, Kan C, Xie L, Gao L, Li H, Sun J, Ning W
Related Content
Claims (7)
When the energy factories in our cells don't work right, they leak harmful particles that can damage hair color cells and cause gray hair to show up too early.
Your hair needs energy from tiny power plants in cells (called mitochondria) to keep making pigment — without healthy mitochondria, your hair can't stay colored over time.
In mice with a broken Dguok gene, their hair turns gray because the stem cells that give color to hair disappear early, even before the color actually fades.
Mice that are missing a certain gene have weaker energy production in their skin cells because their mitochondrial genes aren't working as well, especially as their fur starts growing again later in life.
Giving an antioxidant called NAC in drinking water helped slow down hair greying in mice that were genetically prone to it, possibly by reducing harmful molecules in their bodies.