HUMAN BODYINDIVIDUAL
CELLS
CRAWL TO
THE SITE OF
WOUNDS,
USING THEIR
OUTER
EDGES AS
‘FEET’ PHOTOS: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, NASA/HUBBLE ILLUSTRATOR: RAJA LOCKEY
It seems your skin really can crawl, and you don’t
even have to look at icky pictures for it to happen.
Researchers at Washington State University have
seen skin cells ‘crawling’ to a wound to repair it.
Under normal circumstances, skin cells are
held in place because they are in contact with
surrounding cells, while proteins bind them to the
underlying connective tissue.
In the event of a wound, the team discovered
that cells in the outermost layer of skin dissolve
this protein glue, then reuse some of it to move to
a wound site, then grow more cells to form new,
healed skin. To achieve this, the individual cells
crawl to the site of wounds by shuffling from side
to side, using their outer edges as ‘feet’.SKIN CELLS USE ‘FEET’
TO WALK TO WOUNDS
“It’s using its internal muscle-related proteins to
be able to generate these forces to allow the cell to
use its feet and move along in step-wise fashion,”
said researcher Jonathan Jones.
With a better understanding of the process
behind the cell movement, researchers hope they
will be able to manipulate and enhance it to help
wounds heal more quickly. “Wound healing is
deficient as we get old and also among diabetics,”
said Jones. “That’s why diabetics get skin ulcers.
If we could work out a way to enhance the motility
of these skin cells, we could promote healing in
patients that have problems with wound closure
and ulceration of the skin.” To watch a video of the
crawling skin cells, visit bit.ly/skin_crawlMAIN IMAGE:
Skin wound showing red and white
cells and platelets starting to
accumulate
INSET IMAGE:
To mend a wound, skin cells will
‘walk’ towards it (the arrows in this
image show movement)Update
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