Skin Stem Cells Orchestrate De Novo Generation of Extrathymic Regulatory T Cells to Establish a Temporary Protective Niche During Wound Healing

August 2021 in “ bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) ”

Cynthia Truong, Weijie Guo, Liberty Woodside, Audrey Gang, Peter A. Savage, Nicole R. Infarinato, Katherine Stewart, Lisa Polak, John M. Levorse, Amalia Pasolli, Stanislav Dikiy, Alexander Y. Rudensky, Elaine Fuchs, Yuxuan Miao

hair follicle stem cells regulatory T cells extrathymic differentiation CD4 effector T cells inflammatory neutrophils immune suppressive niche cutaneous wound healing

TLDR Skin stem cells help create protective immune cells during wound healing.

The study demonstrated that during cutaneous wound healing, hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) migrated into the wound and acquired an immune modulatory capacity, enabling them to create a temporary immune suppressive niche for self-protection. HFSCs facilitated the extrathymic differentiation of regulatory T (Treg) cells by providing co-stimulation to wound-infiltrating CD4 effector T cells. This process allowed Treg cells to be generated de novo, protecting HFSCs from damage caused by inflammatory neutrophils. The findings highlighted a unique inflammatory adaptation capacity of adult tissue stem cells, allowing them to shape their own immune suppressive environment during wound repair.

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