"A peripheral glial niche orchestrates the early stages of skin wound healing" in Cell Stem Cell
Healing a skin wound requires many cells to work together. Led by Salome Stierli, PhD, and her colleagues from the Sommer group, this study shows that certain support cells linked to nerves, called "repair glia", play an important early role in this process. These cells help start the body’s natural immune response and attract other cells that are needed to rebuild damaged tissue. When these nerve-associated cells or their signals are missing, wounds heal more slowly and less effectively. The team's findings highlight an unexpected role of nerve-related cells in guiding skin repair.
The findings are published open access.