Ulcers on the backs of mice healed with the help of reprogrammed skin cells, according to a study published yesterday (September 5) in Nature. While superficial injuries heal when keratinocytes, the main kind of cells found in the outermost layer of skin, move into a wound and repair it, deeper cuts require help from medicine. By remodeling connective tissue cells within wounds into precursors of keratinocytes, the research team healed ulcers in living mice.
M. Kurita et al., “In vivo reprogramming of wound-resident cells generates skin epithelial tissue,” Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0477-4, 2018