Tag Archives: skin

Doubling up on burn protection

Treatment of major burns typically requires removing the damaged skin and covering the wound. If a graft of the patient’s own tissue is unavailable, tissue from a deceased donor may be used instead. Donor grafts have several drawbacks, chief being their rejection by the patient’s immune system within about 12 days. Subsequent donor grafts willContinueContinue reading “Doubling up on burn protection”

Depigmented mice get back to black

After successfully preventing and reversing vitiligo in two different mouse models, I. Caroline Le Poole (Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL) and her colleagues have applied for a patent and are seeking regulatory approval and funding to carry out a clinical trial. The basis of their new treatment is a mutant version of the heat-shock proteinContinueContinue reading “Depigmented mice get back to black”

Getting to the root of itch

Neuroscientists have wondered for years whether the signals for itch and pain—two distinct sensations that are both mediated by primary sensory neurons with cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglion or trigeminal ganglia—are transmitted by the same neurons or whether specific neurons are dedicated to each. Some studies have shown that itch-sensing neurons also respondContinueContinue reading “Getting to the root of itch”

Skin: a new frontier in protective immunity

Immune cells in the circulatory system are widely believed to be responsible for protection against pathogens. When an antigen is detected, immune cells produce antibodies to destroy it. Once the antigens are destroyed, antibody production ceases, but the cells ‘remember’ the antigen to help prevent future re-infection. These ‘memory cells’ are therefore an essential componentContinueContinue reading “Skin: a new frontier in protective immunity”

Retrieving new information on ichthyosis

Ichthyosis is a broad term for a group of hereditary skin disorders with various presentations, usually including scaling of the skin. Some forms are relatively mild, whereas others are quite severe. Previous research has identified several genes and gene regions that are associated with some forms of ichthyosis, but for other forms, the underlying geneticContinueContinue reading “Retrieving new information on ichthyosis”

Wrinkle-free

Would you rather be wrinkly or bald? Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis recently described the positional cloning of a spontaneous mutation in wrinkle-free mice (wrfr), grafted skin from which is defective in hair growth. The homozygous mutant mice have extremely thick and tight skin with no wrinkles, but don’t throw out that wrinkleContinueContinue reading “Wrinkle-free”