The human epidermis is a phenomenal tissue. It;s ability to rapidly regrow and divide is miraculous. So miraculous that a study was recently conducted that exposed the epithelial cells ability to regrow and cover an exposed area. The challenge for this cell is they must increase surface area but still maintain its integrity. the "Hisenberg team" used the process of epiboly in zebra fish development to model cell spreading. It was observed that it only took a total of six hours for the epithelial cell layer to spread over the entire cell sphere. The researchers found a new mechanism required for releasing of built up tension and the orientation in which cells divide through mechanical tension. It was found that in the absence of tension-oriented cell division, the tension in the tissue is increased and a ectopic fusion of cells is observed.
I found this article interesting, I never really thought into how epithelial tissue is able to expand and repair itself. but after reading this article and thinking about how it must retain structural integrity as it expands to cover the affected area.
description of epithelial cells
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This is a pretty interesting discovery. I wonder if this is a gateway to how we will heal open wounds. This could save a lot of time an effort on patients who have open wounds that take a long time to heal and are prone to infection.
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