Research reveals steps of skin and hair growth before birth, opening doors for regenerative medicine and scar healing

Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Newcastle University have mapped the development of human prenatal skin for the first time, giving us a detailed understanding of how skin, including hair follicles, forms in the womb. The study, published in Nature on October 16, used single-cell sequencing and cutting-edge genomic techniques to create a single-cell atlas of prenatal human skin. Here, single-cell atlas implies breaking down complex tissue (like skin) into its individual building blocks—cells—to get a clearer understanding of how those cells behave and work together.

This research sheds light on the process behind skin and hair follicle development, knowledge that could prove useful in medical fields such as skin transplants and regenerative treatments. The findings could potentially lead to the development of new hair follicles for burn victims and those with scarring alopecia - an inflammatory condition that can be caused by infections, chemicals, burns, or autoimmune disorders, causing permanent hair loss by destroying hair follicles.

The team also engineered a skin organoid—essentially a "mini organ" of skin grown in a dish, capable of producing hair. The organoid mimics the properties of prenatal skin, showing us how skin tissue develops. More importantly, the study found that immune cells, specifically macrophages, help form blood vessels in developing skin - revealing a previously unknown role in the whole process of scarless skin repair.

The learnings from this study will also help researchers identify the origins of congenital skin disorders, such as blistering and scaly skin. Understanding the cellular structure and molecular blueprint of prenatal skin will allow us to develop better models to study these diseases and push research in regenerative medicine.