Human hair follicle melanocytes as a proxy cell type in neurodegeneration research

Abstract

The skin has enormous capacity to act as a peripheral neuroendocrine organ where it can play a major role in maintaining a constant internal body environment or homeostasis. This is perhaps not too surprising given the skin's strategic location between the external and internal environments. The continuing extension of human longevity has focused much attention on the elucidation of mechanisms of skin aging, including the contributions of intrinsic (e.g., genetics, evolutionary selective pressures) and extrinsic (e.g., environmental insults and stress) factors to this. Melanocyte aging is of interest not only for its implications in skin homeostasis, but also for hearing, vision, and as a model system for physiologic and pathologic neuronal cell aging, e.g., Alzheimer's disease. In this chapter, we review the current knowledge on the potential for neural crest-derived melanocytes of the hair follicle (given their particular vulnerability to aging via canities) as a proxy cell type for the elucidation of neurodegenerative change targeting neural and neuronal cells. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.