Researchers have found that obesity can lead to hair thinning. The findings of the study were published in the journal ‘Nature’.
A group of researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) used mouse model experiments to examine how a high-fat diet or genetically induced obesity can affect hair thinning and loss.
They discovered that “stem cells within hair follicles in mice given a high-fat diet behaved differently from those in mice with a standard diet.” These changes were caused by inflammatory signals in the stem cells, which eventually resulted in hair thinning and loss. These fascinating findings highlight the complex relationship between obesity and organ dysfunction.
The study found that “Obesity can lead to depletion of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) through the induction of certain inflammatory signals, blocking hair follicle regeneration and ultimately resulting in loss of hair follicles.”
Normally, HFSCs self-renew every hair follicle cycle. This is part of the process that allows our hair to continuously regrow. As humans age, HFSCs fail to renew themselves resulting in fewer HFSCs and therefore hair thinning.
According to the study, “Although overweight people have a higher risk of androgenic alopecia, whether obesity accelerates hair thinning, how and the molecular mechanisms have been largely unknown.”
The researcher said, “High-fat diet feeding accelerates hair thinning by depleting HFSCs that replenish mature cells that grow hair, especially in old mice. We compared the gene expression in HFSCs between HFD-fed mice and standard diet-fed mice and traced the fate of those HFSCs after their activation.”
“We found that those HFSCs in HFD-fed obese mice change their fate into the skin surface corneocytes or sebocytes that secrete sebum upon their activation. Those mice show faster hair loss and smaller hair follicles along with depletion of HFSCs. Even with HFD feeding in four consecutive days, HFSCs show increased oxidative stress and the signs of epidermal differentiation,” as per the study researcher.
This study has revealed new information about the specific cellular fate changes and tissue dysfunction that can occur as a result of a high-fat diet or genetically induced obesity, and it could pave the way for future prevention and treatment of hair thinning.
