Becoming Thick Skinned

Your skin takes quite a battering from pollution, the weather and wear and tear. Maintaining this tissue requires a balance between cell loss and cell division. Researchers investigate this fine balance in mice, focusing on the intracellular ‘machinery’ responsible for separating cells as they divide – the spindle. It’s already known that in progenitors – cells that can develop into a variety of mature cells – the orientation of the spindle affects whether cell division results in two new progenitors (symmetrical cell division) or one progenitor and one cell that matures, say into a skin cell (asymmetrical cell division). Using fluorescence microscopy, researchers found applying the chemical TPA to stimulate cell division caused skin to thicken (bottom) compared to untreated skin (top). Taking a closer look revealed that TPA increased asymmetric cell divisions, as did activating a cancer gene. Spindle orientation does therefore have an important role to play in how our skin responds to damage.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Angel Morrow and Julie Underwood, and colleagues
• Department of Dermatology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, October 2019