Editor's Summary

8 September 2005

Under your skin

To perform its function as an effective physical barrier our skin forms several layers of epidermal cells that are continually renewed. How this process occurs has been unclear, but previous studies in cultured skin cells suggested that stem cells at the base of the epidermis form new cells that migrate outwards to the skin surface. Work on mouse embryos now shows that the parent stem cells anchored at the base of the epidermis have the novel ability to replicate asymmetrically. They generate a 'suprabasal' cell, packed with integrins and growth factors, that stays put and above it a proliferative basal cell primed for differentiation and migration.

Letter: Asymmetric cell divisions promote stratification and differentiation of mammalian skin

Terry Lechler and Elaine Fuchs

doi: 10.1038/nature03922

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