For the first time, researchers have created a single cell atlas of prenatal human skin to understand how skin forms, and what goes wrong in disease. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Newcastle University and their collaborators used single cell sequencing and other genomics techniques to create the atlas and uncover how human skin, including hair follicles, is formed. These insights could be used to create new hair follicles in regenerative medicine and skin transplants for burn victims.
In the study, published today (16 October) in Nature , the team also created a ‘mini organ’ of skin in a dish with the ability to grow hair. Using the organoid, they showed how immune cells play an important role in scarless skin repair, which could lead to clinical applications to prevent scarring after surgery, or scarless healing after wounding. As part of the Human Cell Atlas, which is mapping all cell types in the human body to transform understanding of health and disease, the researchers provide a molecular ‘recipe’ to build skin and a new organoid model to study congenital skin diseases.
Skin is the largest organ of the human body, measuring on average two square meters. It provides a protective barrier, regulates our body temperature and can regenerate itself. Skin develops in the sterile environment of the womb, with all hair follicles formed before birth – there is follicle cycling after birth, but no new follicles are made.
Before birth, skin has the uniqu.
