Epithelial Cells Found to Generate Bioelectric Signals During Injury

Cells lining your skin and organs can generate electricity when injured − potentially opening new doors to treating wounds

Textbooks usually depict the epithelial cells encasing the interior and exterior of your body as passive barriers. But researchers discovered they can produce electrical signals like neurons.

Slow, silent 'scream' of epithelial cells detected for first time

It has long been thought that only nerve and heart cells use electric impulses to communicate, while epithelial cells—which compose the linings of our skin, organs and body cavities—are mute, serving mostly as protective barriers that can absorb and secrete various substances.

Building fast artificial nerves using vertical architectures

Vertical organic electrochemical transistors with gradient-intermixed bicontinuous structures can emulate artificial nerves, showing high-frequency sensing, processing and memory functions.

Scientists found the silent 'scream' of human skin for...

The body you inhabit is made up of lots of moving parts that need to communicate with each other. Some of this communication – in the nervous system, for example – takes the form of bioelectrical signals that propagate through the body to trigger the appropriate response. Now, US researchers have discovered that the epithelial cells that line our skin and organs are able to signal the same way to communicate peril... Click to expand... Clic…

American researchers have discovered that epithelial cells are also capable of communicating, but much more slowly than would happen in the nervous system.

A study published in the journal PNAS highlights a "cry" of skin cells. Highlighted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts, the communication of epithelial cells is surprising. It would occur especially after an injury. Do you really know your skin? The one who