Stretch exercises for stem cells expand the skin

Rübsam, Matthias; Niessen, Carien M.

doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02158-y

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29 July 2020

Stretch exercises for stem cells expand the skin

Stretching the skin of mice reveals that mechanical strain is communicated by a subpopulation of stem cells that proliferate and promote mechanical resistance, and so generate extra skin.

Matthias Rübsam ⁰ &
Carien M. Niessen ¹

Matthias Rübsam
1. Matthias Rübsam is in the Cologne Excellence Cluster on Stress Responses in Aging-associated Diseases (CECAD), University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany, and at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging, Cologne.
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Carien M. Niessen
1. Carien M. Niessen is in the Cologne Excellence Cluster on Stress Responses in Aging-associated Diseases (CECAD), University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany, and in the Department Cell Biology of the Skin and the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, University of Cologne.
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The cells of our bodies are exposed to a range of mechanical forces — including compression, shear and stretching — that they must resist to maintain tissue integrity and function. For example, skin responds to stretching forces by expanding. Physicians have exploited this particular response for more than 60 years¹, implanting stretching devices in the skin to cause tissue expansion for plastic surgery or to repair birth defects². But exactly how mechanical strain creates extra tissue in a living organism has not been known. Writing in Nature, Aragona et al.³ now provide compelling insights (at the molecular, single-cell and cell-population level) into how stem cells in the skin of mice sense and communicate stretch to make new tissue.

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Nature 584, 196-198 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02158-y

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