Author
Listed:
- Bing Zhang
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute)
- Sai Ma
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Inbal Rachmin
(Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School)
- Megan He
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Harvard University)
- Pankaj Baral
(Harvard Medical School)
- Sekyu Choi
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute)
- William A. Gonçalves
(Federal University of Minas Gerais)
- Yulia Shwartz
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute)
- Eva M. Fast
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Stem Cell Program and Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School)
- Yiqun Su
(Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School)
- Leonard I. Zon
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Stem Cell Program and Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School
Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
- Aviv Regev
(Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
- Jason D. Buenrostro
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute)
- Thiago M. Cunha
(Harvard Medical School
University of São Paulo)
- Isaac M. Chiu
(Harvard Medical School)
- David E. Fisher
(Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School)
- Ya-Chieh Hsu
(Harvard University and Harvard Stem Cell Institute)
Abstract
Empirical and anecdotal evidence has associated stress with accelerated hair greying (formation of unpigmented hairs)1,2, but so far there has been little scientific validation of this link. Here we report that, in mice, acute stress leads to hair greying through the fast depletion of melanocyte stem cells. Using a combination of adrenalectomy, denervation, chemogenetics3,4, cell ablation and knockout of the adrenergic receptor specifically in melanocyte stem cells, we find that the stress-induced loss of melanocyte stem cells is independent of immune attack or adrenal stress hormones. Instead, hair greying results from activation of the sympathetic nerves that innervate the melanocyte stem-cell niche. Under conditions of stress, the activation of these sympathetic nerves leads to burst release of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline (also known as norepinephrine). This causes quiescent melanocyte stem cells to proliferate rapidly, and is followed by their differentiation, migration and permanent depletion from the niche. Transient suppression of the proliferation of melanocyte stem cells prevents stress-induced hair greying. Our study demonstrates that neuronal activity that is induced by acute stress can drive a rapid and permanent loss of somatic stem cells, and illustrates an example in which the maintenance of somatic stem cells is directly influenced by the overall physiological state of the organism.
Suggested Citation
Bing Zhang & Sai Ma & Inbal Rachmin & Megan He & Pankaj Baral & Sekyu Choi & William A. Gonçalves & Yulia Shwartz & Eva M. Fast & Yiqun Su & Leonard I. Zon & Aviv Regev & Jason D. Buenrostro & Thiago , 2020.
"Hyperactivation of sympathetic nerves drives depletion of melanocyte stem cells,"
Nature, Nature, vol. 577(7792), pages 676-681, January.
Handle:
RePEc:nat:nature:v:577:y:2020:i:7792:d:10.1038_s41586-020-1935-3
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-1935-3
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the
CitEc Project, subscribe to its
RSS feed for this item.
Cited by:
- Malmendier, Ulrike M. & Borgschulte, Mark & Guenzel, Marius & Liu, Canyao, 2020.
"CEO Stress, Aging, and Death,"
CEPR Discussion Papers
14933, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Borgschulte, Mark & Guenzel, Marius & Liu, Canyao & Malmendier, Ulrike, 2023.
"CEO Stress, Aging, and Death,"
IZA Discussion Papers
16366, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
- Mark Borgschulte & Marius Guenzel & Canyao Liu & Ulrike Malmendier, 2021.
"CEO Stress, Aging, and Death,"
NBER Working Papers
28550, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Luye An & Dahihm Kim & Leanne R. Donahue & Menansili Abraham Mejooli & Chi-Yong Eom & Nozomi Nishimura & Andrew C. White, 2024.
"Sexual dimorphism in melanocyte stem cell behavior reveals combinational therapeutic strategies for cutaneous repigmentation,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:577:y:2020:i:7792:d:10.1038_s41586-020-1935-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.