A team of Professor Emi Nishimura (also a professor at Tokyo University) and Assistant Professor Hironobu Morinaga of Tokyo Medical and Dental University has collaborated with Michigan University and Tokyo University of Science to promote hair loss by acting on hair capsule stem cells as factors that cause obesity. I found out how to do it.The study was published online in Nature.It is supported by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and Aderans Company Limited.

 Age-related hair loss is known as a typical aging trait and progresses from middle age.Although obesity is considered to be a risk factor for androgenetic alopecia from epidemiological studies, the degree and mechanism of obesity's involvement in thinning and hair loss were unknown.So far, the research group has shown that age-related thinning and hair loss is due to the depletion of hair follicle stem cells, which are the source of hair regeneration.

 In this study, both young and old mice were given a high-fat diet for verification.As a result, oxidative stress, lipid droplets (organelles that store excess lipids), and inflammatory signals are gradually generated in the hair follicle stem cells of mice that have eaten a high-fat diet for 3 months or more, and stem cells and hair are formed. The "Sonic hedgehog (Shh) route" to be regenerated was suppressed.As a result, when the hair follicle stem cells in the growing stage divide, they differentiate into the epidermis and fat glands, and the depletion of the stem cells progresses, causing the atrophy of the hair follicles, and alopecia without supplying the cells responsible for hair regeneration. It became clear thatIt was also found that the progression of alopecia can be suppressed only when the Shh pathway is activated and stem cells are maintained from the initial stage of a high-fat diet.

 This time, it was found that the progression of alopecia can be suppressed by maintaining hair follicle stem cells by early preventive intervention.In the future, new strategies for the prevention and treatment of various age-related diseases such as alopecia are expected by elucidating the mechanism centered on stem cells.

Paper information:[Nature] Obesity accelerates hair thinning by stem cell-centric converging mechanism

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The University of Tokyo was established in 1877 (Meiji 10) by integrating the Tokyo Kaisei School and the Tokyo Medical School.Since its establishment, it has developed education and research in a unique way in the world as a leading university in Japan and an academic center for the fusion of East and West cultures.As a result, many human resources have been produced in a wide range of fields, and many research achievements […]

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Tokyo University of Science was founded in 1881 as the "Tokyo Physics Training Institute", and after more than 140 years of history, it has developed into a comprehensive science and engineering university with 4 campuses, 7 faculties, 33 departments, and 7 graduate schools with 30 majors. Graduation of students who have acquired the true ability and the founding spirit of "making the spread of science the basis for the development of national luck" […]

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