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 Researchers said on Tuesday an analysis of DNA from more than
6,300 people from five Latin American countries enabled them to
pinpoint a gene that affects a person's likelihood of getting gray
hair.
The gene, called IRF4, is involved in regulating melanin, the
pigment responsible for hair color as well as the color of the skin
and eyes.
People with a certain version of the gene are predisposed to hair
graying, according to University College London human geneticist
Andres Ruiz-Linares, one of the researchers in the study published
in the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers said hair graying is not driven exclusively by
genetics, with other factors in the mix such as stress or
experiencing a traumatic event.
"This is really the first study on the genetics of hair graying in
humans," University College London statistical geneticist Kaustubh
Adhikari said.
 People spend a lot of time and money dyeing gray hair back to their
natural hair color. The researchers said identifying this gene could
offer a path forward for developing a treatment that could prevent
or reverse graying.
"A drug that has effects on the melanin-production pathway in hair
follicles as the follicles develop internally might reduce the need
to apply external hair dyes on the scalp hair after it comes out.
This is certainly a research avenue worth pursuing," Kaustubh said.
The researchers combed through genetic information from men and
women in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru, with a
combination of European, Native American and African ancestry.
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The gene variant predisposing people to early hair graying was
essentially only seen in those of European ancestry. "This might, to
some extent, explain why hair graying is more common in Europeans
than in other populations," Ruiz-Linares said.
One of the researchers brushed aside the issue of whether or not
gray hair is attractive.
"Personally I don't have much of a view regarding the social
response to hair graying, but I find it an interesting model to
study aging in general," said Desmond Tobin, a hair follicle and
pigmentation biologist at Britain's University of Bradford.
The study also identified genes related to other hair traits
including curliness, beard thickness, eyebrow thickness and
predisposition for eyebrows that join together, known as unibrow or
monobrow.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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