A team of scientists has taken a significant step towards understanding how the human body creates skin, a finding that could revolutionize the treatment of aging. Research has made it possible to reproduce small amounts of skin in the laboratory from stem cells, which opens up new possibilities not only to combat the signs of aging, but also to develop artificial skin for transplants and the prevention of scars.
Professor Muzlifah Haniffa, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and one of the leaders of the project, explained that this advance will allow scientists to treat various diseases more effectively and, potentially, find ways to delay aging. “If we can manipulate the skin to prevent aging, we can reduce wrinkles,” Haniffa said. “Our goal is to understand how cells evolve from early development to aging, which will allow us to explore how to rejuvenate organs, such as the heart or skin.”
The study focuses on understanding how skin cells develop during the early stages of fetal life. After three weeks after fertilization, the stem cells begin to activate specific genes that allow them to specialize and form the different layers and functions of the skin. Researchers have identified which genes are involved in this process and at what times, which could be key to future scientific advances. They discovered that immune cells played a critical role in the formation of blood vessels in the skin, and then they were able to imitate the relevant instructions in a laboratory.
A relevant aspect of the finding is that fetal skin regenerates without leaving scars, a process that scientists seek to replicate in adult skin for use in reconstructive surgery.
So far, researchers have managed to grow small samples of skin, from which hair follicles have even emerged. “If we perfect this technique, we could use it to treat patients with burns or even to generate hair in people with alopecia,” said Haniffa. In addition, artificial skin could be used to study hereditary skin diseases and test new treatments.
This project is part of the ambitious Human Cell Atlas, which has analyzed more than 100 million cells from different parts of the body in the last eight years. Professor Sarah Teichmann, co-founder of this consortium, said that the next phase will be to join the atlases of different organs, such as the brain, lung, kidney and heart. “We are about to rewrite what we know about the human body and its organs.”
Genetic advances on other parts of the body will be published in the coming weeks, bringing researchers closer to a complete map of human development.
