A group of Italian researchers at the University of Bristol in Great Britain discovered the 'wound healing' protein and earned publication in Science. No less important is the message they wanted to launch on the occasion of the International Day for Women in Science: the researchers, they explained, should do as the cells that repair wounds, despite being stressed and damaged, do not give up, but react by becoming an engine. of change, of real "leaders", capable of dragging the others to take back the necessary space.
The three Italians are Eugenia Piddini, Silvia Cirillo and the Sardinian Giulia Pilia, originally from Sadali.
The protein they focused on is p53, also known as the “guardian” of the genome for its ability to preserve its stability in times of crisis.
It has been studied for some time "because it plays a very important role in the mechanisms linked to tumors and has in fact changed in many tumor contexts - explains Piddini - but it is also involved in many other physiological contexts, such as in the protection of the genome from mutations and in the metabolic adaptations of cells. ".
The "Piddini Lab" team discovered that this same protein is activated in the damaged epithelial cells located at the edge of the wound and transforms them into "leaders", capable of directing the migration of neighboring cells towards the breach to be repaired. . Once the tissue is healed and the mission accomplished, p53 itself kills the leading cells through a cellular competition mechanism.
"If we were able to demonstrate that these mechanisms discovered in cells in vitro are also present in complex tissues (such as the skin or other epithelia of the human body) - adds Piddini -, we could exploit them to control cell migration and accelerate the repair of wounds, ulcers. or burns that struggle to close ".
Furthermore, continues Giulia Pilia, who is the first author of the study together with her colleague Kasia Kozyrska, the collective migration of cells "is also important in other fields, for example in tumors, where groups of cells move together to create metastases. It would be important to find out. if also in this case the same proteins that we have identified by studying the wounds come into play, because in this way we could improve the therapies currently available ".
