The fur It is the largest organ in the body and its knowledge is key to advancing clinical applications. Now, Experts have managed to create a single-cell and spatial map of human skin prenatal that offers a “molecular recipe” to reconstruct it and improve transplants for burns or scarring alopecia.
Using single-cell sequencing techniques and other cutting-edge genomic methods, the researchers designed this map to understand how skin is formedincluding hair follicles, and what goes wrong in case of disease. In addition, they created a “mini organ” (organoid) to scrutinize the role of immune cells in the repair of this tissue.
The research is published in the journal Nature and is led by experts from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Newcastle. It is part of the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) project, which is cartography all cell types of the human body to transform the understanding of health and illness.
The skin, on average two square meters, provides a protective barrier, regulates body temperature and can regenerate itself. This develops in the sterile environment of the uterus, with all hair follicles formed before birth; After this, a follicular cycle occurs, but new ones are not formed. Before birth, the skin has the unique ability to heal without leaving scarsexplains a statement from Wellcome Sanger.
To make this atlas, the scientists used samples of prenatal skin tissue, which they decomposed to observe individual cells in suspension, as well as cells in place within the tissue. With advanced genomic techniques analyzed individual cells in space and timeand the cellular changes that regulate the development of skin and hair follicles.
In addition to the map, the researchers also created a “mini organ” of skin on a plate, known as an organoid, with the ability to grow hair.
Among others, they found that the organoid model looked more like prenatal skin than adult skin. However, they saw that blood vessels did not form in the organoid skin as well as in prenatal skin. By adding immune cells known as macrophages, they found that they promoted the formation of blood vessels.
These immune cells are known to protect the skin from infections. However, this is the first time that it has been shown that macrophages play a key role in the formation of human skin during early development by promoting the growth of blood vessels, ensure the researchers.
Clues against a type of alopecia
The team also analyzed differences in cell types between prenatal and adult skin. They showed how macrophages play an important role in skin repair without prenatal skin scarring, which could lead to clinical applications to prevent scar formation after surgery or injury.
The work provides a “molecular recipe” for how human skin is built and how hair follicles form. This knowledge could be used in the creation of new follicles for regenerative medicinefor example to treat alopecia cicatricial, characterized by the permanent destruction of hair follicles.
The prenatal human skin atlas will also be used to identify in which cells the genes that cause disorders are activated or expressed congenital problems of hair and skin, such as blisters and scaly skin. Researchers discovered that the genes involved in these diseases are expressed in prenatal skin, meaning they originate in the uterus.
Wellcome Sanger’s Elena Winheim summarizes that the map provides the first “molecular recipe” for creating human skin and research uncovers how human hair follicles form before birth. “This knowledge has amazing clinical potential and could be used in medicine regenerative, by offering skin and hair transplants, for example, for burn victims or people with scarring alopecia.
