Study Finds Fat Cells Can Eliminate Skin Scarring
What doctors once thought was impossible to do in humans was recently found possible in a large-scale, multi-year study. There is now a way to manipulate wounds to heal as regenerated skin as opposed to scar tissue by transforming the most common type of cells found in wounds into fat cells.
Researchers started this study at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in connection with the Plikus Laboratory for Developmental and Regenerative Biology at the University of California, Irvine.
Bring on the Myofibroblasts
Adipocytes—another term for fat cells—are found in the skin. However, when wounds heal as scars, adipocytes are then lost. Thought to only form from scars, myofibroblasts are the cells most commonly found in healing wounds. Skin also has an unusual appearance when scarred, as hair follicles are not associated to these types of wounds.
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