Now, a new study demonstrates that, within their genetic material, these relocated stem cells retain memories of how to travel from the follicle to the skin’s surface, repair damaged skin, and finally ...

In skin, some aberrant adult epidermal stem cells turn on SOX9, kickstarting a process that ultimately activates cancer genes. Early on, every stem cell faces a fateful choice. During skin ...

To do that, these hair follicle stem cells first enter a pliable state in which they temporarily express the transcription factors of both types of stem cells, hair and epidermis.

Humans aren't capable of regenerating lost limbs, but our bodies can heal from many wounds. Whenever we scratch or cut our skin, for example, skin stem cells move in to regrow the epidermis and repair ...

When the skin is injured, quickly restoring barrier function is vital for the organism’s survival. The body calls on all the stem cells that are in the vicinity of the wound. It doesn’t matter if they ...

Epidermal stem and progenitor cells were then used to generate complex 3-D epidermal models called organotypic skin rafts, which also harbored FA mutations when left uncorrected.

They found retinoic acid was essential for stem cells to exit lineage plasticity in vitro and differentiate into either hair or epidermal cells. “Through our studies, first in vitro and then in vivo, ...

"In the disease context, SOX9 gets reactivated in adult epidermal stem cells," says Yihao Yang, first author of the study. How this process might unfold step by step has been unknown, Yang says.