Scientists at UAB created a genetic tweak in mice to cause skin wrinkling and hair loss and reverse them, a discovery that could potentially be used to develop treatments for those conditions in humans.

Wrinkles and baldness are some of the most visible signs of aging. For the study, researchers induced a mutation in mice that caused them to lose fur and develop wrinkles. The gene caused mitochondrial dysfunction in the rodents, according to a UAB press release.

The affected mice developed wrinkled skin and marked hair loss within weeks. When researchers reversed the mutation and stopped the mitochondrial dysfunction, many of the wrinkles vanished and fur returned.

Keshav Singh, a senior scientist at UAB's Comprehensive Cancer Center, led the study.

"This mouse model should provide an unprecedented opportunity for the development of preventive and therapeutic drug development strategies to augment the mitochondrial functions for the treatment of aging-associated skin and hair pathology and other human diseases in which mitochondrial dysfunction plays a significant role," said Singh in a press release.

Scientists working with the mice found little change in the internal organs after mitochondrial dysfunction was induced. But the study seems to show that mitochondria play a strong role in skin aging and hair loss, and that it may be reversible, according to the press release.

Results of the study were recently published in the online journal Cell Death and Disease.