The Body’s Secret Weapon For Healing
When you get hot, you sweat. Your skin is filled with millions of eccrine sweat glands that cool the body as they release perspiration. Those same glands also supply stem cells that heal cuts, wounds and other injuries.
According to researchers at the University of Michigan, these glands represent the body’s secret weapon for healing.
Previous understanding of wound closure was that new skin cells originate from hair follicles and from intact skin at the edge of a wound. The new findings demonstrate that cells arise from beneath the wound, and suggest that human eccrine sweat glands also store an important reservoir of adult stem cells that can quickly be recruited to aid wound healing.
“We have discovered that humans heal their skin in a very unique way, different from other mammals,” says researcher Laure Rittié. “The regenerative potential of sweat glands has been one of our body’s best-kept secrets. Our findings certainly advance our understanding of the normal healing process and will hopefully pave the way for designing better, targeted therapies.”
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