Unexpected helpers

The first and important step in healing wounds on the skin is to close the defect, so almost immediately after the injury, the blood coagulates and closes the wound. For complete healing, all damaged layers of the skin must be restored. To do this, different cells in the skin begin to interact with each other, triggering complex processes that are currently only partially studied.

A group of researchers from the Higher Technical School and the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Zurich demonstrated the important role of peripheral nervous system cells in the healing process of the skin.

It is known that for optimal healing, the skin must be sufficiently well innervated, that is, equipped with nerve fibers. How exactly innervation affects the healing rate has not been known until now.

Using mouse models, the researchers found that nerve fibers change greatly if they are injured by skin damage. Neurons located along nerve bundles (glial cells) change their structure and are reprogrammed into "repair" cells. They separate from the nerve fibers and are directed directly into the wound. There they begin to develop a number of factors that stimulate and support regeneration processes.

Chronic wounds, for example, in elderly patients with diabetes mellitus, heal very slowly or do not heal at all. This complicates the course of the underlying disease and causes serious health problems. There is still no effective treatment for such skin wounds. The researchers intend to continue to closely study the factors secreted by glial cells that accelerate healing. The main goal of this work is to create an effective therapy for chronic skin wounds associated with diabetes mellitus and other diseases.

Article by Vadims Parfejevs et al. Injury-activated glial cells promote wound healing of the adult skin in mice published in the journal Nature Communications.

Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the University of Zurich: Unexpected Helpers in Wound Healing.