What is it about?
We have discovered that epithelial cells—long thought to only be passive barriers or secretors—can actually “talk” using neuron-like electric signals, especially when wounded, which opens a new frontier for medical technology and tissue regeneration. We demonstrated that human skin cells generate electric spikes after being wounded with a laser. These spikes travel hundreds of micrometers from the injury site, mimicking the depolarization and repolarization phases seen in nerve cells, but at a much slower rate of about 1-2 seconds per spike.
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Why is it important?
The finding challenges the traditional view that epithelial cells are electrically “silent.” Instead, under stress or injury, the epithelial cells can communicate quickly across large distances. The findings will create lots of scientific problems, ranging from fundamental science on the roles of their bioelectric communication in physiological functions of epithelial organs to how bioelectric communication in epithelial organs to medical applications, including chronic wound-healing, powering the regenerative cells.
Perspectives
Long-range communication in the epithelial system is critical to understand how local communication engages with systemic interaction with other types of cells and tissue. The tantalizing discovery can produce multiple ways to understand epithelial cell communication and how they evolve to control their physiological functions.
Sunmin Yu
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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This page is a summary of: Electric spiking activity in epithelial cells, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2427123122.
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