New clue to controlling skin regeneration--as well as skin cancer
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - 06:30
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- How do organs "know" when to stop growing? The answer could be useful in regenerative medicine, and also in cancer - where these "stop growing" signals either aren't issued or aren't heeded. Researchers in the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston have now found a regulator of gene activity that tells epidermal stem cells when it's time to grow more skin, as well as a "crowd control" molecule that can sense cell crowding and turn the growth off.