Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
Shannon Rausser
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
Junting Ren
Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
Eugene V Mosharov
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Molecular Therapeutics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, United States
Gabriel Sturm
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
R Todd Ogden
Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
Purvi Patel
Proteomics and Macromolecular Crystallography Shared Resource, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
Rajesh Kumar Soni
Proteomics and Macromolecular Crystallography Shared Resource, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
Clay Lacefield
New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, United States
UCD Charles Institute of Dermatology & UCD Conway Institute, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Ralf Paus
Dr. Phillip Frost Department of Dermatology & Cutaneous Surgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, United States; Centre for Dermatology Research, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; Monasterium Laboratory, Münster, Germany
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, United States; Department of Neurology, H. Houston Merritt Center, Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
Background: Hair greying is a hallmark of aging generally believed to be irreversible and linked to psychological stress. Methods: Here, we develop an approach to profile hair pigmentation patterns (HPPs) along individual human hair shafts, producing quantifiable physical timescales of rapid greying transitions. Results: Using this method, we show white/grey hairs that naturally regain pigmentation across sex, ethnicities, ages, and body regions, thereby quantitatively defining the reversibility of greying in humans. Molecularly, grey hairs upregulate proteins related to energy metabolism, mitochondria, and antioxidant defenses. Combining HPP profiling and proteomics on single hairs, we also report hair greying and reversal that can occur in parallel with psychological stressors. To generalize these observations, we develop a computational simulation, which suggests a threshold-based mechanism for the temporary reversibility of greying. Conclusions: Overall, this new method to quantitatively map recent life history in HPPs provides an opportunity to longitudinally examine the influence of recent life exposures on human biology. Funding: This work was supported by the Wharton Fund and NIH grants GM119793, MH119336, and AG066828 (MP).
