Hair Grays Too Soon If Immune Events Shift Gene Expression

Legend has it that fright, stress, or grief may drain the color from one’s hair overnight. Nothing quite like this phenomenon has been confirmed by science, though gradual hair graying has been studied to uncover mechanisms of stem cell self-renewal. For example, hair graying in mice has been associated with the premature differentiation of melanocyte stem cells (McSCs) and their eventual depletion. Now, in a new study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Uni