Scar-free healing is almost here

Scientists already knew how to stimulate the growth of hair follicles in scar tissue, and had successfully done so in mice. But their new study showed something surprising–the presence of hair follicles caused the skin to release Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP). This protein signaled the surrounding cells to turn from myofibroblasts into adipocytes, the fat cells that are present in normal skin. This means that the mice and lab grown human skin samples didn’t develop scar tissue. In the past, scientists didn’t think that myofibroblasts could become any other type of cell.

“The secret is to regenerate hair follicles first,” study leader Dr. George Cotsarelis of University of Pennsylvania told Penn Medicine News. “After that, the fat will regenerate in response to the signals from those follicles.”

“The findings show we have a window of opportunity after wounding to influence the tissue to regenerate rather than scar,” said the study’s lead author, Maksim Plikus, an assistant professor of Developmental and Cell Biology at the University of California, Irvine.