Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling is part of an extensive range of important biological activities with differential actions in various cell types. The activity of FGF is modulated by glycosaminoglycans, found 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 an adequate regulation of fibroblasts.
With no control of these processes, excessive scar tissue develops. As a result of impaired healing, keloids and hypertrophic scars often become a problem. These are both serious health conditions that alter people's quality of life, due to high treatment costs and frequent poor results.
A Fibroblast is a kind of cell that promotes the production of keratinocytes and the synthesis of reticular and elastic fibers, and glycoproteins found in the extracellular matrix. The production of fibroblasts improves the epidermal morphology.
Keratinocytes appear in the basal layer from the mitosis of keratinocyte stem cells. They are pushed up through the cells of the epidermis, undergoing gradual differentiation until they reach the stratum corneum where they form a layer of enucleated, flattened, strongly keratinized cells called squamous cells. This layer forms an efficient barrier to the entry of foreign matter and infectious agents in the body and minimizes humidity loss.
Keratinized Cells
Typically occurring during the process of scar removal keratinocytes are shed and restored continuously from the stratum corneum. The time of transit from the basal layer to the shedding stage is approximately four weeks, although this can be sped up in conditions of keratinocyte hyperproliferation, such as psoriasis.
The simplest definition of a stem cell in an adult organism is any cell with an elevated capacity for self-renewal that extends throughout adult life. In addition, stem cells are usually considered to possess the potential to produce differentiated progeny.
According to these criteria, the skin has long been recognized as having a resident stem cell population. The tissue is made of a layered squamous epithelium (interfollicular epidermis; IFE) with associated capillary follicles and glandular structures (the sebaceous glands and sweat glands).
The IFE supports constant renovation and there is always a need to replace the dead, ultimately differentiated cells of the external cornified layers through the production 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 specialize along several lineages. Stem cells within the hair follicle bulge can create progeny that specialize not only in all the capillary follicle lineages, but also in sebocytes and the interfollicular epidermis.
After exposure to adequate mesenchymal signals, cells of the interfollicular epidermis are able of originating hair or sebaceous lineages. There is, nevertheless, evidence for the presence of distinct stem cell groups within the IFE and sebaceous gland. These observations can be reconciled by verifying that there are different 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. In steady conditions, however, the stem cells usually give rise to a more selected repertoire in response to signals from the local microenvironment.
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