idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nerve cells in the skin help wounds to heal. When an injury occurs, cells known as glial cells change into repair cells and disseminate into the wound, where they help the skin to regenerate, researchers from the University of Zurich have shown.
An essential step in skin wound healing is wound closure, which is why shortly after an injury occurs, blood coagulates and seals the wound. For the injury to be able to heal permanently, however, the affected layers of the skin need to be newly formed. For that to happen, a complex, only partially understood interplay takes place between various cell types in our skin. Together with a team from ETH, Lukas Sommer, a professor in the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich, and his research group have now been able to show that peripheral nerve cells play a central role in this healing process. The research group is part of “Skintegrity,” a flagship project of the University Medicine Zurich initiative.
Glial cells change their identity
There have long been indications that for optimal healing to occur, a tissue needs to be innervated (i.e. supplied with nerves). The reason, however, remained unclear. With the help of an animal model, the researchers from Skintegrity discovered that fine nerve bundles change drastically if they are injured when a skin wound occurs. Cells along the injured nerve bundles, known as glial cells, change their original identity and are reprogrammed to “repair cells.” They thereby lose their contact to the nerve bundles and disseminate into the wound bed. “There, they distribute a diverse cocktail of factors, which support the wound healing,” explains Lukas Sommer. Through genetic experiments, he was able to prove that, among other things, these repair cells were important to help the wound close as they support the necessary reconstitution of the dermis.
Healing chronic wounds
In older people or people with diabetes, for example, wounds often heal slowly or, in some cases, not at all. Such chronic wounds usually cause serious health problems and treatment is currently unsatisfactory. Interestingly, the researchers from Skintegrity also found reprogrammed peripheral nerve cells in human skin wounds. “Now we want to work together with clinicians from the University Hospital Zurich to better characterize the wound healing factors that are distributed by nerve cells,” says Sommer. “This may lead to an effective treatment for chronic wounds in the future.”
Literature:
Vadims Parfejevs, Julien Debbache, Olga Shakhova, Simon M. Schaefer, Mareen Glausch,
Michael Wegner, Ueli Suter, Una Riekstina, Sabine Werner and Lukas Sommer. Injury-activated glial cells promote wound healing of the adult skin in mice. Nature Communications. January 16, 2018. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01488-2.
Support for the project
This research came about as part of a joint project carried out in the context of Skintegrity, a University Medicine Zurich flagship project. The aim of Skintegrity is to boost skin research and to promote Zurich as a world-leading center in this area, as well as to exploit the existing synergies between the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, and the University’s hospitals. In addition to the support of University Medicine Zurich, the team also received support from the Swiss Cancer Research Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the Scientific Exchange Programme Sciex NMS by the Swiss government.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Lukas Sommer
Institute of Anatomy
University of Zurich
Phone +41 44 635 53 50
E-mail: lukas.sommer@anatomy.uzh.ch
University Medicine Zurich
Dr. Corina Schütt
Phone +41 44 634 57 37
E-mail: corina.schuett@hochschulmedizin.uzh.ch
http://www.media.uzh.ch/en/Press-Releases/2018/Wound-Healing.html
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Biology, Medicine
transregional, national
Research results, Transfer of Science or Research
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
