Melissa Harris Tests Immunotherapy to Reverse Gray Hair After 14 Cancer Patients Re-pigmented
Updated
Updated · TODAY · Jun 22
Melissa Harris Tests Immunotherapy to Reverse Gray Hair After 14 Cancer Patients Re-pigmented
2 articles · Updated · TODAY · Jun 22
Summary
Melissa Harris’s team has tested immune-stimulating treatment in cells and animal models to restore pigment to gray hair, moving the idea beyond an accidental clinical observation.
The work grew from a 2017 JAMA Dermatology report in which 14 lung cancer patients treated with immunotherapy saw their gray hair regain color.
Harris says graying largely happens when melanocyte stem cells stop repopulating the hair follicle after roughly 7 to 15 growth cycles; stress-linked norepinephrine can also drive those pigment cells away.
The treatment is still far from market: researchers have not yet run larger human studies, and no approved therapy currently reverses or prevents gray hair.