●発毛スイッチ発見！
エール大学のチームが「細胞ジャーナル」に研究結果を発表した内容によれば、「脂肪前駆細胞」がタンパク質「PDGF」を作り、これが毛を作る幹細胞に働きかけて毛の発育を促進させるということがわかった。脂肪前駆細胞という発毛スイッチって何だ？
エール大学のチームが「細胞ジャーナル」に研究結果を発表した内容によれば、「脂肪前駆細胞」がタンパク質「PDGF」を作り、これが毛を作る幹細胞に働きかけて毛の発育を促進させるということがわかった。脂肪前駆細胞という発毛スイッチって何だ？
教授ヴァレリーホースリーさんはこういう。
「我々は毛嚢の基部にある休眠幹細胞に作用するこれらの脂肪細胞を得ることができれば、再び成長する髪を得ることができるかもしれない」
「Prof Valerie Horsley, from Yale University, said: "If we can get these fat cells in the skin to talk to the dormant stem cells at the base of hair follicles, we might be able to get hair to grow again.」
「Prof Valerie Horsley, from Yale University, said: "If we can get these fat cells in the skin to talk to the dormant stem cells at the base of hair follicles, we might be able to get hair to grow again.」
詳しく知りたい人は英文読解に挑んでみましょう。
BBCニュース原文：Fatty skin cell clue to baldness
Fat cells in the skin have been identified as the source of chemicals needed to make hair grow, according to researchers in the US.
Experiments on mice, reported in the journal Cell, suggested hair stem cells were controlled by fat.
Injecting a type of fat cell stimulated hair growth in mice which otherwise struggled to grow hair.
The Yale University team says it may be possible to use the findings to one day restart hair growth to reverse balding.
Follicles
They said there was a four-fold increase in the number of "precursor" fat cells in the skin around a hair follicle when it started to grow.
They said there was a four-fold increase in the number of "precursor" fat cells in the skin around a hair follicle when it started to grow.
They looked at defective mice which could not produce these fat cells. Hair normally grows in cycles, but in the defective mice - the follicles had become trapped in the dormant phase of the cycle.
Scientists injected fat cells from healthy mice into the defective mice. Two weeks later, hair follicles had started to grow.
They showed that precursor fat cells were producing a chemical - a platelet-derived growth factor - at 100 times the level of surrounding cells.
Injecting the growth factor into the skin of defective mice could kick-start growth in 86% of follicles.
The study proposed: "That [fat] precursor cells secrete platelet-derived growth factor to promote hair growth."
The US team is continuing to look for other chemicals which may be involved.
However, it is not known if the same chemical processes take place in humans.
Previous studies in men have shown that bald parts of the scalp had the same number of hair stem cells as hairy areas.
Prof Valerie Horsley, from Yale University, said: "If we can get these fat cells in the skin to talk to the dormant stem cells at the base of hair follicles, we might be able to get hair to grow again."
The study suggested the fat cells could have other functions involving stem cells such as tumour formation or healing wounds.