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Human Hair Graying is Naturally Reversible and Linked to Stress

Ayelet Rosenberg, Shannon Rausser, Junting Ren, Eugene Mosharov, View ORCID ProfileGabriel Sturm, R Todd Ogden, Purvi Patel, Rajesh Kumar Soni, Clay Lacefield, Ralf Paus, View ORCID ProfileMartin Picard
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.18.101964
Ayelet Rosenberg
1Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
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Shannon Rausser
1Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
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Junting Ren
2Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
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Eugene Mosharov
3Department of Psychiatry, Division of Molecular Therapeutics, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
4New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY USA
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Gabriel Sturm
1Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
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R Todd Ogden
2Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
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Purvi Patel
5Proteomics and Macromolecular Crystallography Shared Resource, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
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Rajesh Kumar Soni
5Proteomics and Macromolecular Crystallography Shared Resource, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
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Clay Lacefield
4New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY USA
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Ralf Paus
6Dr. Phillip Frost Department of Dermatology & Cutaneous Surgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA & Centre for Dermatology Research, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
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Martin Picard
1Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
4New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY USA
7Department of Neurology, H. Houston Merritt Center, Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
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  • ORCID record for Martin Picard
  • For correspondence: martin.picard@columbia.edu
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Summary

Hair graying is a universal hallmark of aging1 but its mechanisms are insufficiently understood2 and its reversibility in humans remains uncertain. Moreover, while psychological stress accelerates human biological aging3,4and triggers hair graying in animals5, no prior study has longitudinally examined the stress-to-hair graying connection in humans. Here we develop an approach to quantitatively profile natural graying events and their associated proteomic signatures along individual human hairs, resulting in a quantifiable physical timescale of aging. Using this approach, we identify white hairs that naturally regain pigmentation within days to weeks in healthy young individuals across sex, ethnicities, ages, and body regions, demonstrating that human hair graying is naturally reversible. Proteomic analysis of matched dark and white hairs replicated across two independent experiments show that graying is marked by the upregulation of proteins related to energy metabolism, mitochondria, and antioxidant defenses. Coordinated graying and reversal also occur simultaneously across multiple scalp hair follicles of a person, suggesting that unknown systemic factors influence hair graying patterns. Combining hair pigmentation profiling and proteomics at the single hair shaft level, we also report hair graying and reversal occurring in parallel with behavioral and psychological stressors. A computational simulation of life-long and stress-induced hair graying suggests a threshold-based mechanism for the rapid reversibility of graying. Together, these findings document the reversibility of hair graying in humans and provide a new model to examine the modifiability of human aging.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://timrain.shinyapps.io/hair/

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted May 19, 2020.
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Human Hair Graying is Naturally Reversible and Linked to Stress
Ayelet Rosenberg, Shannon Rausser, Junting Ren, Eugene Mosharov, Gabriel Sturm, R Todd Ogden, Purvi Patel, Rajesh Kumar Soni, Clay Lacefield, Ralf Paus, Martin Picard
bioRxiv 2020.05.18.101964; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.18.101964
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Human Hair Graying is Naturally Reversible and Linked to Stress
Ayelet Rosenberg, Shannon Rausser, Junting Ren, Eugene Mosharov, Gabriel Sturm, R Todd Ogden, Purvi Patel, Rajesh Kumar Soni, Clay Lacefield, Ralf Paus, Martin Picard
bioRxiv 2020.05.18.101964; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.18.101964

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