美国联合利华公司开展的一项最新研究显示,与同卵双胞胎姐妹发色几乎一样相比,异卵双胞胎姐妹的头发灰度确实存在差异,而造成这种差异的主要原因是基因,这表明基因对女性是否生白发有重要的影响。相关研究成果发表在美国《公共科学图书馆·综合》(PLoS One)杂志上。
科学家研究了200对年龄介于59岁到81岁之间的同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎后得出了上述结论。研究发现,同卵双胞胎姐妹的头发灰度几乎没有差异,这意味着她们不同的生活方式对是否生白发的影响微乎其微;而异卵双胞胎头发灰度的差异则是源于基因。另外,科学家也发现,同卵双胞胎经历同样的脱发过程和程度,而异卵双胞胎的情况并不一样,这也表明基因在起作用。
然而,在两组双胞胎之间,头顶上头发稀疏的程度没有太大的差异,说明这种情况更多地是由环境和生活习惯等因素造成的。
联合利华的资深科学家大卫·戈恩表示,这项研究表明,环境因素并不如人们认为的那么重要。遗传因素让女性从额前开始脱发;而环境和生活习惯是造成女性头顶头发稀疏的主要原因。当然,还需要更进一步的研究来了解环境因素和生活习惯是如何导致这种情况发生的。(生物谷Bioon.com)
更多相关研究:
Nature Genetics:特殊基因变异造就白马
Science:发现“无毛”基因
FASEB J:心理压力会让你的头发变白吗?
Cell:色素干细胞损伤致使黑发变白
生物谷推荐原始出处:
PLoS ONE 4(12): e8021. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008021
Why Some Women Look Young for Their Age
David A. Gunn1*, Helle Rexbye2, Christopher E. M. Griffiths3, Peter G. Murray1, Amelia Fereday1, Sharon D. Catt1, Cyrena C. Tomlin1, Barbara H. Strongitharm1, Dave I. Perrett4, Michael Catt5, Andrew E. Mayes1, Andrew G. Messenger6, Martin R. Green1, Frans van der Ouderaa7, James W. Vaupel8, Kaare Christensen2
1 Unilever Discover, Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, 2 The Danish Twin Registry and Danish Aging Research Center, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, 3 Dermatological Sciences, University of Manchester, Salford Royal Hospital, Manchester, United Kingdom, 4 Perception Lab, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom, 5 Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom, 6 Department of Dermatology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 7 Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands, 8 Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
The desire of many to look young for their age has led to the establishment of a large cosmetics industry. However, the features of appearance that primarily determine how old women look for their age and whether genetic or environmental factors predominately influence such features are largely unknown. We studied the facial appearance of 102 pairs of female Danish twins aged 59 to 81 as well as 162 British females aged 45 to 75. Skin wrinkling, hair graying and lip height were significantly and independently associated with how old the women looked for their age. The appearance of facial sun-damage was also found to be significantly correlated to how old women look for their age and was primarily due to its commonality with the appearance of skin wrinkles. There was also considerable variation in the perceived age data that was unaccounted for. Composite facial images created from women who looked young or old for their age indicated that the structure of subcutaneous tissue was partly responsible. Heritability analyses of the appearance features revealed that perceived age, pigmented age spots, skin wrinkles and the appearance of sun-damage were influenced more or less equally by genetic and environmental factors. Hair graying, recession of hair from the forehead and lip height were influenced mainly by genetic factors whereas environmental factors influenced hair thinning. These findings indicate that women who look young for their age have large lips, avoid sun-exposure and possess genetic factors that protect against the development of gray hair and skin wrinkles. The findings also demonstrate that perceived age is a better biomarker of skin, hair and facial aging than chronological age.