A mouse study shows that a genetic variant that causes hair color appears to impede the speed at which wounds close.
Our hair color is strongly determined by a gene called MC1Rwhich encodes a protein that controls the ratio of a brownish-black to yellowish-red pigment in hair follicles.
As explained by , people with brown or black hair carry variants of MC1R that encode active forms of this protein. But almost all redheads have less active or completely inactive forms due to mutations in MC1R.
A the same protein is also in our skinwhere it has anti-inflammatory effects. This led a team from the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, to question whether it influences wound healing. As the same magazine writes, this process requires a brief inflammatory response to clear microbes and dead cells from the lesion, but, if it is excessive or prolonged, healing is impaired.
This led Jenna Cash,
In the new study, recently in PNASthe team surgically created 4-millimeter-wide wounds on the backs of mice with black hair and red hair, the latter of which had a completely inactive form of the MC1R protein.
A week later, the wounds on the ginger rats had shrunk by only 73%on average, compared to 93% in the black hair group.
Based on this, the team wondered whether an experimental topical drug that increases the activity of active forms of the protein — but does not work on completely inactive versions — could improve the healing of chronic wounds.
A week later, they found that the treated rats’ wounds had shrunk, on average, by 63% — more than double the wound rate of control animals.
Additional analysis revealed that the drug works by reducing the number of inflammatory immune cells.
As wound healing is quite similar between rats and humans, the approach shows potential for treating people, even redheadsmost of which have MC1R proteins with some activity.
This may seem like bad news for some redheads, with previous research suggesting they also experience more pain. However, scientists, cited by New Scientist, state that there is no need to be alarmed: “We do not yet have human data and, if a red-haired individual sees slightly slower healing, You might not even notice it — it’s probably a pretty small effect.”
