The study found new targets for treating chronic itching

some people with dry skin will itch hard when they touch the skin. A study of mouse models by U.S. researchers found that this was associated with a decrease in the number of specific cells in the skin.
study, published
in
, found that the number of "Merkel cells" in the skin decays and the number of cells in the dry skin decreases during animal aging.
Hu Hongzhen, an associate professor of anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and author of the paper, told Xinhua that immunofluorescent staining of skin tissue in dry-skinned mice and older mice older than 24 months showed that their number of Merkel cells was significantly lower than in the control group mice.
researchers flicked mice with hairy nylon tools and found that mice with fewer cells had more visible itching, while the control group mice had no significant itching when mechanically stimulated.
they used gene editing to allow the mice's Merkel cells to be activated by a chemical, which reduced itching behavior accordingly.
researchers say animals evolved into different itch esopes such as chemical itching and mechanical itching. Mechanical itching is mainly caused by mechanically sensitive receptors in the skin and nerve tissue to feel external mechanical stimuli, such as insects crawling over the skin, chemical itching is mainly due to contact with histamines, proteases and other chemical deliveries, causing specific itch receptor excitement, such as mosquito bites.
study, they also found that the Piezo2 protein channel on the cell membrane was the key to stopping itching in Merkel's cells, or could be used as a therapeutic target.
hu Hongzhen said merkel cells and this protein channel play an important role in mechanical itch regulation, so targeting the regulation of this signaling pathway function is expected to provide new research ideas for the treatment of chronic itching. (Source: Xinhua Zhouzhou)