Scientists from a research group known as "Skintegrity" at the University of Zurich have unexpectantly found that glial cells change into repair cells and assist with wound healing. The work was published recently in Nature Communications.
Using an animal model, the Skintegrity researchers found that the glial cells along nerve bundles change drastically if they are injured when a skin wound occurs. These glial cells would actually change their original identity and are reprogrammed to become "repair cells." By doing so, they would lose their contact to the nerve bundle and be allowed to go into the wound. Once in the wound, the reprogramed cells would secrete a number of factors to enhance TGF-β signaling and support wound healing.
From a number of genetic experiments, the researchers were also able to show that these repair cells were important to helping wound closure and reconstitution of the dermis.
The Skintegrity group has 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 Lukas Sommer, a professor in the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich. "This may lead to an effective treatment for chronic wounds in the future."