Severe skin injuries from burns, toxic chemicals, or other causes often leave scars or disfigurements due to the body's inability to fully heal wounds. A new study looks at how the skin heals and restores naturally, and the possible efficient drug treatments to help with wound recovery.
A team of Canadian researchers has their new study published in the Cell journal Stem Cell. They analyzed the behavior of skin cells within the dermis and how repairs occur naturally.
After a severe wound affects several layers of skin, it would generally leave a distorted mark such as scars or tight, itchy patches of skin. This is typical of how the body's healing process works to prevent the wound from getting infected by closing the wound as quickly as possible instead of regenerating new skin tissues.
Dr. Jeff Biernaskie, a professor at the University of Calgary and the Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society Chair in Skin Regeneration and Wound Healing, shared that the team "identified a specific population of progenitor cells that reside within the dermis, the deep connective tissue of the skin."
These cells are responsible for generating new skin cells to repair or maintain damaged tissue. The dermal progenitors are activated after an injury, Biernaskie explained, then proliferate and "migrate into the wound where they generate nearly all of the new tissue that will fill the wound, both scar, and regenerated tissue."
Regenerating Dermal Cells
For the past five years, his team has intensively studied how certain dermal cells can regenerate new skin and do not disfigure scar tissue. Using a few techniques on genomics, the scientists profiled thousands of cells after an injury. Analyzing the cells at different times allowed them to compare which parts of the wound have zones that regenerate new skin cells and other parts that form scars.
The team discovered that although all the dermal cells share the same origins, various microenvironments inside a single would trigger 'entirely different sets of genes,' said Biernaskie. For example, signals within the regenerative zones of the wound reactivate genes involved in skin development. On the other hand, the scar-forming zones lack pro-regenerative programs and have scar-forming programs instead.
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Modifying Skin Healing
Analyzing the simultaneous dermal cell activity made it possible for the team to modify genetic programs involved with regenerating skin. Wound environments can be modified using drugs, said Biernaskie, "or modify the genetics of these progenitor cells directly, and both are sufficient to change their behavior during wound healing." The modified healing processes can be applied to the regeneration of new hair follicles, glands, and fat within the wounded skin.
Their research also involved genetic signals that could fight against fibrosis, or wounds that often lead to permanently scarred tissue. The team uncovered the possibility that adult wound-responsive cells harbor a latent regenerative capacity. They are currently looking for other pathways so that drugs can be developed to help with skin healing.
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