New Clue to Controlling Skin Regeneration

Researchers found a regulator of gene activity that tells epidermal stem cells when it's time to grow more skin.

Researchers in the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston have now found a regulator of gene activity that tells epidermal stem cells when it's time to grow more skin, as well as a "crowd control" molecule that can sense cell crowding and turn the growth off.

The work, in mice and in human cancer cells, provides clues to new therapeutic strategies for cancer, particularly squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common skin cancer, in which epidermal cell growth is inappropriately turned on. It could also aid efforts to grow skin grafts and treat burn patients.

The findings underscore the idea that cancer and regeneration are closely related.  "We have found a molecular switch that tells your skin to keep growing or stop gr