Skin “Remembers” Wounds, Heals Faster the Second Time Around

After an initial wounding, genes needed for repair remain ready for action.

katya katarina zimmer
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FIX-IT-CREW: Epithelial stem cells (green) migrate into a wound in mouse skin to repair the damaged tissue barrier. SAMANTHA LARSEN, ELAINE FUCHS LAB/ROCKEFELLAR UNIVERSITY

The paper S. Naik et al., “Inflammatory memory sensitizes skin epithelial stem cells to tissue damage,” Nature, 550:475–80, 2017. Inflammatory Memory Our body is routinely assaulted by ultraviolet radiation, irritants, and pathogens. Shruti Naik, an immunologist at Rockefeller University, wondered: “Do these stressors have any kind of lasting impact on cells?” Immune cells are known to “remember” infections and inflammatory events so that they can respond faster to future insults, but what about the epithelial stem cells that maintain the skin and promote wound healing? Multiple Assaults Naik and her colleagues induced inflammation in mice by exposing the animals’ skin to chemicals, fungal infection, or mechanical wounding. Then they measured the time it took for the skin to heal after injuring it in the same ...

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Meet the Author

  • katya katarina zimmer

    Katarina Zimmer

    After a year teaching an algorithm to differentiate between the echolocation calls of different bat species, Katarina decided she was simply too greedy to focus on one field. Following an internship with The Scientist in 2017, she has been happily freelancing for a number of publications, covering everything from climate change to oncology.

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