新奇事件簿 压力会导致灰发（在线收听）

Scientists have discovered that stress is one factor in turning our hair grey, white or silver - at least, in mice.

科学家发现压力是导致头发变灰、变白或变银的一个因素——至少在老鼠身上是这样。

Stem cell biologists from Harvard University in the USA

来自美国哈佛大学的干细胞生物学家

conducted a series of tests on mice to ascertain the effects of stress on the rodents.

在老鼠身上进行了一系列实验，以确定压力对老鼠的影响。

The scientists injected the mice with an ingredient found in chili peppers that gives them their heat.

科学家给老鼠体内注射了一种红辣椒成分，这种成分可以给老鼠提供热量。

The compound made the mice stressed.

这种化合物使老鼠感到紧张。

This caused a hair-colouring pigment in the mice to go into overdrive as a reaction to the stress and deplete colour-regenerating stem cells.

作为对压力的反应，老鼠体内的一种染发色素进入过度兴奋状态并耗尽了颜色再生的干细胞。

This caused the mice's hair to rapidly turn white.

这导致老鼠的毛发迅速变白。

Lead researcher, Professor Ya-Chieh Hsu, said: "The detrimental impact of stress that we discovered was beyond what I imagined."

首席研究员Ya-Chieh Hsu教授表示：“我们所发现的压力的有害影响超出了我的想象。”

People have wondered for centuries about the link between stress and greying hair.

几世纪以来，人们一直到想知道压力和灰发之间的联系。

It is believed that France's Queen Marie Antoinette's hair turned white the night

据悉，在十八世纪晚期法国大革命期间，法国玛丽·安托瓦内特王后

before she was beheaded during the French Revolution in the late-eighteenth century.

在被斩首的前一天晚上，一夜白头。

More recently, we have witnessed the locks of presidents and other world leaders quickly lose colour.

最近，我们看到总统和其他世界领导人的头发很快就变白了。

The strains of leadership seem to go to the roots of things, especially hair follicles.

领导力的紧张似乎深入到事物的根源，尤其是毛囊。

Professor Hsu said the loss of the pigment-regenerating stem cells cannot be reversed.

Hsu教授表示色素再生干细胞的损失是无法逆转的。

She said: "Once they're gone, you can't regenerate pigment any more. The damage is permanent."

她说到：“一旦消失，你的色素细胞就无法再生。这种损害是永久的。”

Worryingly, she hypothesised that stress could be responsible for accelerating the aging process.

令人担忧的是，她假定压力可能是加速衰老过程的原因。