There you are. Thought I heard the click. Good to see you to start this month afresh. So’s the coffee so pour yourself a mug and think about what treat you’ll have with it. Say… have you ever wondered why hair turns gray? No? Well, I’m about to tell you anyway… not that we really know. The science of hair colour, or lack thereof, isn't very well understood. Many questions remain as to why old age and extreme stress can cause hair to turn gray. Now, new research has advanced our scientific understanding of the graying process — and may be a step toward its prevention.
As detailed in the latest issue of the journal Cell, researchers have identified the chemical pathway by which hair-generating cells "ask" for hair pigment from pigment-producing cells. "The hair-generating stem cells send ‘Wnt’ signals to the melanocyte stem cells to activate them.
Melanocytes produce melanin, the pigment that gives skin and hair their color. When so-called Wnt proteins bind to melanocytes, this causes them to start proliferating. The melanocyte stem cells both replace themselves and generate so-called daughter cells. "It is their daughter cells that go on to produce the pigment that is incorporating into the hair."
The amount of melanin those daughter cells produce — an amount defined by your genes — determines whether you're a brunette, blonde, redhead or something in between.
"With old age, however, gray hair results from defective maintenance of the melanocyte stem cells, which causes them to die or just not function as usual". With fewer and fewer color boosters, your hair strands will appear gray, white or silver. What exactly causes this decay is still not understood, but Wnt signaling may have something to do with it.
It is also not known why stress or shock seem to speed along the graying process, but the new research on Wnt signaling may provide clues as to why this happens also. "Whether Wnt interacts with chemical pathways that are induced by stress and whether that affects melanocytes is an interesting question".
Now that’s all well and good, eh, and any teacher will concur that ‘wnt’ is the reason teachers get gray hair…students ‘wnt’ listen, ‘wnt’ do their homework, ‘wnt’ turn in assignments on time and ‘wnt’ come to class! That’s what I believe and I’m sticking to it …like flies to a fresh pile of recycled doughnuts!
See ya!
Bob
Comment from Wayne in Valleyfield:
Maybe with the purchase of the 460 aircraft announced by Americain Airlines the improved service with these new generation machines some aliens may book a flight or two?
Bones from Québec...
Welcome to facebook, Bob...
Bob’s reply:
I’ve actually had a Facebook account for a couple years (rwftaylor) but haven’t used it much. This week though, through Facebook, we discovered that a friend of Nong’s from Australia was in Bangkok so the two of them were able to catch up. We haven’t seen them in about 12 years. They’d like us to scoot down to Melbourne and we might just do that.
Trouble with Facebook is that I reportedly have about 100 or so students and teachers who want to ‘be my friend’. We have a lot of teachers from the Phillipines, so friends of friends of friends means that I’d soon be friends with most of the Phillipines nation which is okay. What could I see them all, I wonder?
Any aliens on Facebook?
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