New skin research could help slow signs of aging

Researchers have scientifically discovered that it may be possible to slow down the signs of aging over time.

The research team discovered how the human body generates skin from stem cells and was even able to regenerate small amounts of skin in the lab.

This research is part of an effort to understand how every cell in every part of the human body is made.

In addition to combating aging, the findings could also be used to create artificial skin for transplants and prevent scarring.

The Human Cell Atlas project is one of the most ambitious research programs in biology. The organization is international, but centered at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge.

Professor Muzrifah Hanifa, one of the project’s leaders, said this would not only help scientists treat diseases more effectively, but also keep us healthy longer and perhaps looking younger. He said it would also lead to finding new ways to

“If we can manipulate the skin to prevent aging, we will see fewer wrinkles,” says Hanifa, a professor at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

“If we can understand how cells change from early development to aging in adulthood, we can say, ‘How do we rejuvenate organs, how do we rejuvenate the heart, how do we rejuvenate the skin?’ You can think, ‘I wonder if that’s true?’

That vision is still a long way off, but researchers are making progress, most recently in understanding how fetal skin cells develop during early stages of human development.

When an egg is first fertilized, all human cells are the same. But after three weeks, specific genes within these so-called “stem cells” are switched on, giving them instructions on how to specialize and aggregate to form different parts of the body.

Researchers have determined which genes are turned on when and where to form the body’s largest organ, the skin.

When viewed under a microscope and treated with chemicals, they look like tiny fairy lights.

The gene that turns orange forms the surface of the skin. Other substances that are yellow determine its color, and there are many other substances that make our hair grow, sweat, and form other structures that protect us from the outside world.

The researchers obtained a set of instructions for essentially creating human skin, which they published in the journal Nature. If you can read these instructions, exciting possibilities open up.

For example, scientists already know that fetal skin heals without scarring.

The new instructions include details about how this happens, and one area of ​​research will be to see if this can be replicated in adult skin, and perhaps used in surgery. It may become.

In one major development, scientists have discovered that immune cells play a key role in the formation of blood vessels in the skin, allowing them to mimic relevant instructions in the lab.

They used chemicals to turn genes on and off at the right time and in the right place to artificially grow skin from stem cells.

So far, they have grown small clumps of skin, from which small hairs have grown.

Professor Hanifa says the ultimate goal is to perfect the technique.

“If we know how to make human skin, we could use it on burn patients and it could also be a way to transplant tissue,” she said.

“Another example is that if you can build hair follicles, you can actually create hair growth for bald people.”

Skin in a Plate can also be used to understand how genetic skin diseases develop and to test potential new treatments.

Instructions to turn genes on and off are transmitted throughout the developing embryo and continue after birth into adulthood, developing our various organs and tissues.

The Human Cell Atlas project has analyzed 100 million cells from different parts of the body in its eight years of operation. A draft atlas of the brain and lungs has been created, and researchers are studying the kidneys, liver, and heart.

According to Professor Sarah Taichmann of the University of Cambridge, one of the scientists who founded and leads the Human Cell Atlas Consortium, the next step is to integrate the individual atlases.

“This is incredibly exciting because it gives us new insights into physiology, anatomy and a new understanding of humans,” she told BBC News.

“It will lead to rewriting textbooks in terms of ourselves, our tissues and organs, and how they work.”

Genetic instructions for how other parts of the body grow are expected to be published in the coming weeks and months, and will ultimately inform how humans are built. You’ll get a more complete picture.