Resiniferatoxin

Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III: Science and technology

Why in news?

• Researchers have identified for the first time the mechanism by which chronic stress causes hair colour loss, an advance that may lead to the development of novel drugs which can prevent the whitening of hair.

Key facts:

• In the study, the scientists induced intense pain in special black mice for several weeks using a substance called resiniferatoxin, and turned the animals’ fur completely white.
• The researchers said resiniferatoxin, which activated sensory nerve fibres, is a naturally occurring chemical found in resin spurge (Euphorbia resinifera), a cactus-like plant native to Morocco.
• According to the scientists, the sympathetic nervous system, which triggers the body’s rapid involuntary response to dangerous situations, is affected directly by the stress, and consists of nerves that branch from the spine and run throughout the body.
• It controls the organism’s “fight or flight” response to sudden danger, launching a flash flood of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol to make the heart beat faster, blood pressure rise, respiration accelerate and the pupils dilate, among other systemic effects.
• The researchers observed that when the sympathetic nervous system was blocked, hair whitening was curbed.
• In another experiment, in which the researchers surgically removed the sympathetic fibres, fur colour was again retained in the weeks following pain induction.
• Earlier studies had found that pain-related stress was also involved in the development of hair and skin pigment producing cells called melanocytes.
• Scientists had discovered that unspecialised stem cells in the hair follicle bulb “mature” too soon under stress.