Mechanical Stretching Promotes Skin Tissue Regeneration via Enhancing Mesenchymal Stem Cell Homing and Transdifferentiation

Abstract

Skin tissue expansion is a clinical procedure for skin regeneration to cover cutaneous defects that can be accompanied by severe complications. The transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been proven effective in promoting skin expansion and ameliorating complications. This study, which sought to provide a systematic understanding of the mechanism, determined that mechanical stretching could upregulate MSC expression of genes related to hypoxia, vascularization, and cell proliferation; enhance transplanted MSC homing to the expanded skin tissue; and promote their transdifferentiation into epidermal basal cells and endothelial cells.