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UAB scientists created a genetic modification in mice to cause skin wrinkling and hair loss and reverse, a finding that could potentially be used to develop treatments for these conditions in humans.
Wrinkles and baldness are among the most visible signs of aging. For the study, researchers induced a mutation in mice that caused them to lose fur and develop wrinkles. The gene has caused mitochondrial dysfunction in rodents, according to a UAB press release.
Affected mice developed wrinkled skin and marked hair loss within a few weeks. When the researchers reversed the mutation and stopped the mitochondrial dysfunction, many wrinkles disappeared and the fur came back.
Keshav Singh, senior researcher at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of UAB, led the study
. opportunity for the development of preventive and therapeutic drug development strategies to increase mitochondrial functions for the treatment of cutaneous and capillary pathology associated with aging and other human diseases in which mitochondrial dysfunction plays a significant role ", Singh said in a press release. ] Scientists working with mice found little change in internal organs after the induction of mitochondrial dysfunction. But the study seems to show that mitochondria play an important role in skin aging and hair loss, and that they can be reversible, according to the press release.
The results of the study were recently published in the journal Cell Death and Disease
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