Fibroblasts and Skin Health
Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling is involved in a wide range of important organical activities with differential effects in several cell types. The activity of FGF is modulated by glycosaminoglycans, located both in the extracellular space and on the cell surface.
These molecules are critical in wound healing. Such a dynamic mechanism is interactive and depends on the proper regulation of fibroblasts.
Without control of these processes, excessive scar tissue develops. Because of impaired healing, keloids and hypertrophic scars often become a problem. These are both serious health conditions that affect people's quality of life, due to high treatment costs and frequent poor results.
A Fibroblast is a kind of cell that promotes the proliferation of keratinocytes and the creation of reticular and elastic fibers, and glycoproteins located in the extracellular matrix. The proliferation of fibroblasts enhances the epidermal morphology.
Keratinocytes appear in the basal layer from the mitosis of keratinocyte stem cells. They are rushed through the layers of the epidermis, undergoing gradual specialization until they reach the stratum corneum where they create a layer of enucleated, flattened, highly keratinized cells called squamous cells. This layer creates an efficient barrier to the entry of foreign matter and infectious agents in the body and reduces moisture loss.
Typically occurring during the process of scar removal keratinocytes are eliminated and restored continuously from the stratum corneum. The time of transit from the basal layer to the elimination stage is approximately one month, although this can be sped up in conditions of keratinocyte hyperproliferation, like psoriasis.
We can define a stem cell in an adult organism as any cell with a high capacity for self-renewal that extends throughout adult life. In addition, stem cells are usually considered to have the potential to produce differentiated progeny.
According to these criteria, the epidermis has long been recognized as having a resident stem cell stock. The tissue is made of a layered squamous epithelium (interfollicular epidermis; IFE) with associated hair follicles and glandular structures (the sebaceous glands and sweat glands).
The IFE undergoes continuous turnover and there is always a need to replace the devitalized, terminally differentiated cells of the outermost cornified layers through the proliferation of cells in the basal layer.
It is now well accepted that stem cells inside the epidermis are multipotent and able to create daughter cells that differentiate along several 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 able of giving rise to hair or sebaceous lineages. There is, however, evidence for the existence of distinct stem cell populations inside the IFE and sebaceous gland. These findings can be reconciled by verifying that there are different stem cell populations inside the hair, sebaceous gland and IFE.
Each of these can create daughters that differentiate along any of the epidermal lineages. In steady conditions, however, the stem cells usually give rise to a more restricted repertoire in response to signals from the local microenvironment.
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Published February 8th, 2008