New York : By transforming the most common type of cells found in wounds into fat cells, researchers have reported finding a way to manipulate wounds to heal as regenerated skin rather than scar tissue, says IANS. “Essentially, we can manipulate wound healing so that it leads to skin regeneration rather than scarring,” said principal investigator George Cotsarelis, Professor of Dermatology at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, US.
Fat cells called adipocytes are normally found in the skin, but they are lost when wounds heal as scars. The most common cells found in healing wounds are myofibroblasts, which were thought to only form a scar.
Scar tissue also does not have any hair follicles associated with it, which is another factor that gives it an abnormal appearance from the rest of the skin. Researchers used these characteristics as the basis for their work – changing the already present myofibroblasts into fat cells that do not cause scarring.
“The secret is to regenerate hair follicles first. After that, the fat will regenerate in response to the signals from those follicles,” Cotsarelis said. The study showed hair and fat develop separately but not independently. Hair follicles form first, and the Cotsarelis lab previously discovered factors necessary for their formation.
