New Nature Communications paper uncovering how skin adapts to mechanical stretching
We are happy to share our new paper titled “A stretch-responsive fibroblast program promotes epidermal stem cell self-renewal during skin expansion” by our colleague Ceyhun has just been published at Nature Communications. Ceyhun contributed as a shared first author in a long collaboration between teams in Copenhagen, Leuven, and Modena. At a high level, they asked a simple question: how does skin coordinate growth when it is mechanically stretched, as in reconstructive surgery? We found that fibroblasts don’t just passively respond, they actively reprogram. Upon stretch, they re-enter the cell cycle, reduce collagen production, and adopt a more embryonic-like state. Strikingly, this low-collagen environment is what enables epidermal stem cells to self-renew, ensuring that both layers of the skin expand in a coordinated way. These findings have implications for tissue expansion strategies and the development of improved skin grafts.