Human skin contains millions of sweat glands, which protect us from overheated in hot weather or extreme physical activity. But their role is not limited to: how do I find the researchers from the University of Michigan (USA), the sweat glands is also important for wound healing.

The fingerprint man with streams of sweat glands (photo Visuals Unlimited / Corbis.

Till now was considered, that our cuts, bruises, abrasions, etc., are healed by reserves epithelial stem cells, which come from the neighbouring intact areas of the skin, and the hair follicles. On the sweat glands attention nobody paid. The researchers were able to show that stem cells, healing the wounds of man come from deeper layers directly below the damaged site, and their sources are just sweat glands.

In an article published in the American Journal of Pathology, the authors report that the sweat glands enhance the growth of keratinocytes, depends on the restoration of the upper layers of the skin. Given that the sweat glands in our skin contains several times more than the hair of bags, we can say that healing occurs in a greater degree it is at their expense.

The question arises why the role of the sweat glands in the healing of wounds was found out just now. Researchers attribute this to the fact that the majority of experiments on this subject is placed on the animals with the sweat glands are not of great significance. Indeed, the human skin is very different from the skin of other mammals, and some of its properties cannot be described, exploring only animals. The authors hope that their findings will find a wide application in medicine: if you learn how to manage healing activity of sweat glands, wounds, burns, decubitus ulcers can be treated in several times faster than it is able to do now.

Based on the materials from the University of Michigan.