Fibroblasts and Skin Health
Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling is part of an extensive range of crucial organical activities with differential actions in various cell types. The activity of FGF is modulated by glycosaminoglycans, located both in the extracellular space and on the cell surface.
These molecules are crucial in injury healing. Such a dynamic process is interactive and depends on the proper regulation of fibroblasts.
Without control of these processes, excessive scar tissue develops. Because of inefficient healing, keloids and hypertrophic scars often become a problem. These are both serious health problems that affect people's quality of life, due to high treatment costs and often poor results.
A Fibroblast is a kind of cell that stimulates the proliferation of keratinocytes and the creation of glycosaminoglycans, and glycoproteins located in the extracellular matrix. The proliferation of fibroblasts enhances the epidermal morphology.
Keratinocytes originate in the basal layer from the division of keratinocyte stem cells. They are pushed up through the layers of the epidermis, undergoing gradual specialization until they join the stratum corneum where they create a layer of enucleated, flattened, strongly keratinized cells named squamous cells. This layer forms an efficient barrier to the entry of foreign matter and infectious agents in the body and reduces humidity loss.
Usually, in the process of scar removal keratinocytes are shed and restored constantly from the stratum corneum. The time of transit from the basal layer to the elimination stage is approximately four weeks, although this can be accelerated in conditions of keratinocyte hyperproliferation, like psoriasis.
We can define a stem cell in an adult organism as any cell with a high capability for self-renewal that extends throughout adult life. In addition, stem cells are commonly considered to have the potential to originate differentiated progeny.
According to these criteria, the skin has long been recognized as having a resident stem cell stock. The tissue consists of a stratified squamous epithelium (interfollicular epidermis; IFE) with associated hair follicles and glandular structures (the sebaceous glands and sweat glands).
The IFE supports continuous renovation and there is always a need to replace the devitalized, ultimately differentiated cells of the outermost cornified layers through the proliferation of cells in the basal layer.
It is now well known that stem cells within the epidermis are multipotent and able to create daughter cells that differentiate along multiple lineages. Stem cells inside the hair follicle bulge can create progeny that differentiate not only in all the hair follicle lineages, but also in sebocytes and the interfollicular epidermis.
After exposure to adequate mesenchymal signals, cells of the interfollicular epidermis are capable of giving rise to hair or sebaceous lineages. There is, nevertheless, evidence for the existence of distinct stem cell populations within the IFE and sebaceous gland. These observations can be reconciled by afirming that there are separate stem cell populations within the hair, sebaceous gland and IFE.
Each of these has the capacity to generate daughters that differentiate along any of the epidermal lineages. Under steady conditions, however, the stem cells normally give rise to a more selected repertoire in reaction to signals from the local microenvironment.
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Published February 8th, 2008
Filed in Women