Marie Antoinette syndrome is a phenomenon in which a person’s hair suddenly turns white (depigmentation). The condition’s name comes from the folk tale of French queen Marie Antoinette, whose hair is said to have suddenly turned white before her execution on October 16, 1793. People often assume that this syndrome is caused by pressure – perhaps this is most evident in the photos of the head of state before and after taking office. Compare President Obama before and after taking office, retiring. However, because the specific mechanism of graying hair has not been elucidated, it is not clear that 3 factors of aging, genetic factors and stress will affect gray hair to what extent. Recently, researchers from Harvard University published a study in the journal Nature that identified the mechanism by which rat hair turns gray prematurely under stress. The average human scalp has 100,000 hair follicles, and humans also have many different hair colors. Hair color is determined by melanocytes, which produce melanin that absorb light in various combinations. Melanocytes are derived from melanocytes (MeSC), located in the protruding part of the hair follicle. The hair growth cycle is divided into three phases, namely the anagen growth phase, the catagen resting phase, and the telogen long metabolic (shedding) phase. Hair growth cycle: growth phase, resting phase and shedding phase (from left to right). Melanocytes are produced during the growth phase. As a person ages, the melanin stem cells will gradually deplete, and the pigment produced will have a “salt-and-pepper” color, then turn gray, and finally white – the pigment is completely lost. in all hair follicles. At first, researchers suspected that stress would trigger an immune attack on melanin stem cells. But this was later proven to be a false hypothesis, as the mice lacked immune cells but remained mutated and had white spots. Stress increases the secretion of the hormone cortisol, so researchers are beginning to suspect that the hormone cortisol is responsible for the hair color change. However, when the cortisol-producing glands were removed in the mice, the mice’s fur would still turn white. Finally, the scientists focused on the sympathetic nervous system, the system in the body that is used to control the stress response in dangerous situations. Through studies, scientists discovered that melanocytes are located in the bulging part of the hair follicle, surrounded by neurons of the sympathetic nervous system, and release a neurotransmitter molecule. nerve is called norepinephrine. Melanin stem cell activity under normal and stressful conditions. As can be seen in figure a, under normal conditions, melanin stem cells (MeSCs) migrated from the bulge (in the direction of the red arrow) and differentiated into melanocytes during the analysis. From there, melanocytes synthesize pigment to make the regenerated hair dark. During the degenerative and resting phase, these stem cells begin to die. However, in the next growth phase, there will still be a large amount of new MeSC used to replace the dead stem cells. In figure b, the researchers found that external pressure stimulates and activates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing adrenaline release in the hair follicles. Norepinephrine then causes the MeSCs to completely transform into melanocytes, and none of the stem cells survive the growth phase in the next cycle. Since no new melanocytes are produced, the hair is naturally greyish white. The researchers also tested the effects of different pressures on the fading of the mice’s fur. At different stages of hair growth, they exposed the mice to three different stressors – pain, limited mobility, and psychological stress. All three of these factors induce MeSC depletion, which eventually leads to the appearance of white hairs. Previous popular theories believed that stress-induced hormonal changes (such as corticosterone) or autoimmune reactions were responsible for graying hair. The researchers examined these underlying mechanisms, first by blocking corticosterone signaling, and then by stressing the mice’s immune systems. In either case, corticosterone changes or autoimmune responses did not induce MeSC depletion. However, the researchers found that the expression of MeSCs depends on an adrenaline receptor, which responds to adrenaline. The adrenal glands are the main source of adrenaline. But surprisingly, the researchers found that removing these glands still did not prevent the mice’s coat color from turning gray under stress. Another source of adrenaline is the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which is active in response to stress. The researchers demonstrated that the bulge area is internally connected by sympathetic neurons. Using neurotoxin molecules to destroy the SNS or prevent sympathetic neurons from releasing adrenaline could prevent hair from turning gray due to stress. Next, the researchers studied mice with activated sympathetic neurons and found that over-activating the SNS in these mice could cause hair to turn gray without stress. Taken together, these results indicate that adrenaline released from activated sympathetic neurons induces MeSC depletion. The red shows the melanin stem cells at the bottom of the hair follicles and the sympathetic nerves are shown in green around them. Therefore, the culprit behind Marie Antoinette Syndrome is adrenaline, but our problem is not over yet. Stress produces adrenaline which turns our hair gray, so can a silvery bangs help relieve stress? The team from Harvard University, led by Xu Yajie, believes that hair-whitening is actually a side effect of sympathetic nervous system stress processing: “For species like octopuses and geckos flowers have the ability to change color rapidly, the pigment cells in their body will be activated under the influence of the nervous system, but in today’s mammals, only melanocytes remain. very sensitive to the hormones secreted by the nervous system. Once the hormone is secreted in excess, these cells are inadvertently activated.” Gray hair color is not life-threatening, so in the process of evolution, this small defect has remained. In fact, in the face of stress, hair doesn’t actually turn completely white overnight, which is a slow process and lasts for several months. In addition to being associated with stress and age, gray hair can sometimes be related to experience, leadership, and trust. For example, when a male silverback mountain gorilla is fully grown, it will grow gray hair on its back and become the leader of the gorillas. After being subjected to enough pressure, individuals that are “dyed” white often have a higher status in the community than their age.

A heart cell organ that can beat like a real heart. Photo: livescience According to sciencemag.org, this mini organ (cell organelle) mimics the real heart of a 25-day-old human embryo and could help solve many mysteries, such as why children’s hearts don’t have scars. after having a heart attack. Not involved in the new study, but Zhen Ma, a cardiac organelle development bioengineer at Syracuse University, says it’s a great study, and the experiment is important in understanding Congenital heart defects and human heart formation. This process has so far relied solely on animal models. Although other mini-organs such as the brain, intestines, and liver have been grown in the lab for more than a decade, the heart cell organ presents a more challenging challenge for scientists.
The first cardiac organoids were created from mouse heart cells. They may beat on a lab plate, but they look like a bunch of heart cells, not a real heart. According to Aitor Aguirre, a stem cell biologist at Michigan State University, the cardiac organelle needs to function. With the heart, one wants the heart cell organ to have chambers and function to beat in rhythm. Watch a video of a mini heart beating in the lab (source: Sciencemag.org): To create an embryonic-like self-organizing heart cell organelle, the authors of the new study programmed human pluripotent stem cells (cells that have the ability to develop into any type of tissue). which) for this cell to turn into other types of heart cells. They wanted to create three layers of cells in the wall of the chambers of the heart, one of the first developing parts of the heart. Next, they embedded these stem cells in different concentrations of growth-promoting nutrients. They tried until they found a recipe to get these stem cells to form tissue in the correct order and shape in the embryo. After a week of development, the cardiac organelle was structurally equivalent to the heart of a 25-day-old embryo. At this stage, the heart has only one chamber, which will later be the left ventricle of the mature heart. Cardiac organelles are only about 2mm in diameter and have the typical major cell types in this stage of development: myocytes, epithelial cells, fibroblasts, and the epicardium. They also have a clear chamber that beats at a rate of 60-100 beats per minute, similar to the heart rate of embryos of the same age. Lead study author Sasha Mendjan, a stem cell biologist at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, said: “When I first saw it, I was surprised that these chambers had self-forming. What’s amazing is that you see right away whether this experiment works and if this organelle is working, because it has a pulse.” Scientists were able to study heart formation in unprecedented detail. Photo: livescience The mini-heart has so far been more than three months old in the lab and will help scientists monitor the heart’s development in unprecedented detail. They can know the source of heart diseases such as congenital heart defects in children and heart cell death after a heart attack. Mendjan and his colleagues also frozen organelles to test their response to injury. They found that cardiac fibroblasts, a type of cell responsible for maintaining tissue structure, travel to the site of damage to repair dead cells, as happens in children who have had heart attacks. Scientists have long wondered why children’s hearts can regenerate after being damaged without scarring, unlike adults. Mr. Aguirre said the next step would be to connect this organ of beating heart cells to a network of blood vessels and test its ability to pump blood. Mendjan’s team intends to find a way to modify the nutrient solution to produce a four-chambered heart cell organ. With this innovative heart cell organ, researchers were able to learn more about heart problems that can arise when the walls of the heart’s chambers begin to form. Meanwhile, Mr. Ma said that growing a more mature heart cell organ with all four chambers and structure is a matter of the future. He thinks this will take a decade to materialize.

The team at Kyoto University Japan has created inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPS) that can overcome the immune system’s failure to accept transplanted cells in cell treatments. The research team is headed by lecturer Akitsu Hotta at the iPS Research and Application Center of Kyoto University. The team said they used gene editing to replace proteins on cell surfaces, which can cause the immune system to reject transplanted cells. According to the researchers, through animal testing and other means, they have confirmed that the iPS cells they generate reduce the risk of transplant rejection. IPS cells can be used to create cells that can regenerate any type of tissue in the body. Their method is able to generate 7 types of iPS cells and is applicable to more than 95% of the Japanese population. Previously, researchers at Keio University – Japan submitted a proposal to the Government for a clinical trial using iPS stem cells to treat patients with spinal cord injuries. Each year, about 5,000 people are said to lose the ability to move their limbs due to spinal cord injuries, the disease currently has no effective treatment. IPS cells can be used to create replacement cells for any tissue in the body. The team’s goal is to transplant cells into the patient so that these cells develop into nerve cells that transmit signals from the brain to restore the ability of the patient to move arms and legs. Japanese researchers have also made significant strides in their efforts to seek treatment for Parkinson’s disease (fibrillation paralysis). According to the group of researchers, for the first time in the world they have successfully transplanted iPS stem cells into the patient’s brain. “We did the transplant for the first time. The patient is recovering well now ”. GS. Ryosuke Takahashi at Kyoto University said. They performed this groundbreaking surgery recently, which implanted 2.4 million iPS cells into the brain of a 50-year-old male patient. The purpose of this procedure is to prevent Parkinson’s disease from causing depleted neurons. business. The research team will follow the patient for about 2 years to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of this method. Not stopping there, the above research group has developed iPS into the precursor cells of the reproductive cells. These cells were then cultured for about 3 months, in the same box as the oocytes isolated from the pups. The team claims to have obtained spherical cells with large cell nuclei. After analyzing the shape and characteristics of these cells, the team concluded that these are oocytes, the precursors of oocytes. The team says the work will help develop techniques for making human eggs from induction pluripotent stem cells. They can explain the cause of infertility through research on egg formation. Stem cells can develop into every other type of cell in the body. Breakthroughs … The pioneer in this technology is the laboratory of GS. Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, Japan. In 2006, he published four genes with specially coded transcription factors that help transform from adult cells to multipotential stem cells. Together with Professor John Gurdon, he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Biomedical Sciences for “discoveries of adult cells that have the ability to be reprogrammed to become multi-potential stem cells”. Previous studies have concerned that reprogramming adult cells into iPS poses major risks, making the method limited in humans. For example, if a virus is used to alter the genotype in a cell, some oncogene expression genes are likely to be activated. However, scientists have announced the invention of a technology that helps to remove cancer-causing genes after multi-potential induction, making the application of iPS in the treatment of human diseases become more feasible. time is over. Currently, iPS cells are opening up a promising research direction in the treatment of genetic diseases in humans such as Down or polycystic kidney disease. In addition, iPS cells from impaired patients, which are not observed in iPS cells from healthy people, also provide additional physiological insights into these diseases. Nguyen Hung ( (Theo japantimes, nature) )

BSCKI Nguyen Thi Ngoc Han

Lazer Surgical Department – skin care – physiotherapist, Hanoi Dermatology Hospital has successfully treated a case of a stroke caused by mesotherapy (micro injection) on the skin to rejuvenate the skin.

That was a 37-year-old female patient in Hai Phong who injected unknown stem cells and Hyaluric acid (HA) at an acquaintance spa to rejuvenate the skin.

The woman reported mixing the two vials presented as stem cells and Hyaluric acid (HA) together and using mesotherapy in the skin. Contrary to her desire to have white, smooth and smooth skin, her entire face is covered with red spots. This lasted for 3 to 4 weeks after the injection without getting better.

Afraid she had to go to Hanoi Dermatology Hospital for help. Dr. CKI Nguyen Thi Ngoc Han, Lazer Surgery Department – skin care – physiotherapist who examined and received the case said that the patient came to the hospital in a state that the entire cheeks were swollen and thick. thick red spots, prominent on the skin surface, each mark 0.5cm apart, many nodules began to show signs of superinfection.

The patient came to the hospital with a blemished, swollen face.

This is not the case too uncommon to have complications due to micro-injection. Previously, the Department of Cosmetic Dermatology Hospital Ho Chi Minh City also received female patient HTT (25 years old) to the hospital with a lot of red, raised lumps on the skin’s surface.

According to the patient, because she saw a spa advertising a beauty service after just one injection of salmon sperm extract, her skin was plump, white and spotless, so she bought this beauty treatment.

A few days later, the skin all over her face began to have red bumps, especially the most prominent on the forehead, so she came to the hospital for treatment. Here, she was examined by a doctor and concluded that she had a granulomatous reaction after injecting unknown essence, and had to treat edema and reduce inflammation.

Explain the situation of complications after micro-injection with reporters Infonet, Dr. Ngoc Han said that the reason may be that customers are using drugs that do not guarantee quality, of unknown origin, or not suitable for the skin condition. Or they are assigned wrong treatment, improper post-treatment skin care, or performing non-standard technical procedures (unskilled performers).

According to Dr. Ngoc Han, Mesotherapy is a technique developed by French doctor Michel Pistor in 1952, the term mesotherapy is derived from the Greek “meso” meaning “in the middle” and therapy “meaning” treatment “.

He described mesotherapy as “less volume, less repetition and where it is needed”. Meso therapy represents minimally invasive techniques that include intradermal or subcutaneous injection of small amounts of vitamins, drugs of other biologically active substances to accelerate a biological response and correct pathology in the area of ​​need. treatment.

Accordingly, this method is usually indicated for fat digestion therapy in areas such as abdomen, thighs, buttocks, hips, legs, arms, face; reducing cellulite; skin rejuvenation; Reduce skin hyperpigmentation, pigmentation or hair loss treatment.

Nowadays, mesotherapy is used quite commonly because it is less invasive, relatively safe and quite effective. Mesotherapy usually has very little risk.

However, Dr. Ngoc Han informed that post-procedure complications can still occur due to incorrect treatment indications, non-standard technical procedures, and drugs used are not of sufficient quality, not suitable for the condition. skin or skin care after improper treatment.

Accordingly, early complications can occur hours or days after the procedure, including acute conditions such as bruising, pain, sensitivity, swelling, itching, redness, irritation, Allergy or even infection in the treated skin …

“Late events appear after a few weeks or months. Including conditions: post inflammatory hyperpigmentation granulomatosis, scarring, late hypersensitivity … In these cases, the “correction” will take a lot of time and money for the patient “, Dr. Ngoc Han said.

In order to avoid possible skin beauty complications, dermatologists think prevention is very important. Accordingly, before deciding to make beauty by any method, you need to learn carefully, avoid entrusting your face to non-reputable establishments and are done by people without expertise even That spa facility belongs to “acquaintances”.

Beauty work should be done in places with proper technical procedures, using quality medicine and proper skin care. Therefore, women need to be treated at reputable hospitals or medical facilities and have been licensed to perform related procedures.

Illustration. Photo source: Internet

Snake venom or stem cells may sound “fancy”, and they do indeed have a number of benefits for the skin. However, there are no scientific studies to prove the retinol and AHA content in these two products.

Fat-soluble creams

Sagging skin, fatty orange peel lumpy skin is the result of a complex biological process that up to now there is no product that can be prevented or repaired. Melting cream can only make sagging skin look smoother.

Shaving cream and gel for women

Softening and moisturizing foams and gels will make the process of shaving easier and avoid the razor scratching the skin. However, what makes you unreasonably expensive is that women’s hair shaving products are almost exactly the same as men’s products, but at a much higher price.

If you don’t mind the scent of men’s shaving cream, you can use these products to save more. Alternatively, you can also use a moisturizing shower gel or conditioner to make hair smoother and softer instead of investing in a separate shaving product.

Heat-resistant hair spray

Heat-resistant hair spray will help prevent the evaporation of moisture from the hair due to the high heat from curling irons or straighteners because it contains silicone. However, silocones are commonly found in many hair products such as hair styling sprays or hair moisturizers. So, you do not need to buy specialized heat protection hairspray, just use the daily hair care products when you want to use heat styling.

Split ends hair treatment products

The only way to get hair off split ends is to cut it off. No cosmetics can save this situation, you should not spend money buying it.