Gray hair could play surprising role in cancer defense, study suggests

A new study may have pinpointed how going gray is connected to one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer.

Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, led by Dr. Emi K. Nishimura, found that pigment-producing stem cells in hair follicles respond to stress in dramatically different ways.

Depending on their environment, those cells can either die off, which leads to gray hair, or survive and multiply in ways that could trigger melanoma , according to a university press release.

The findings were published Oct. 6 in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

The team studied melanocyte stem cells, the cells that give hair and skin their color, using mouse models and tissue samples. In exposing these cells to forms of stress that damage DNA — such as chemicals that mimic UV exposure —