Summary Of Pilkus Study

Pilkus’ studies focus on the conversion of a cell lineage of wound myofibroblasts to fat cell precursors in adult mammals using differing mice lines that allow for the manipulation and exploration of fat cell regeneration throughout the wound healing process. To begin the study, it was necessary to explore the components of making the fat cells and their precursor cells during wound healing. Preliminary experiments were conducted using dermal cells from wounds with and without hair follicles. Results showed that the hair follicles were a necessary factor to inducing the growth of fat cell precursors. The dermal cells were then tested to discover that the process leading up to the fat cell precursors first includes the simultaneous expression of muscle motility proteins and myofibroblasts followed by fat cell commitment factors growing adjacent to the hair follicles in the scar tissue which promote the growth of the fat cells. Although preliminary studies were able to locate the primary way that the fat cells …show more content…
The results concluded that new fat cells arise from wounds that express the lacZ gene which originates from myofibroblasts. These results allowed remaining questions about the reprogramming of the myofibroblasts which were initially investigated through the more specific RNA sequencing of the transcriptomes of the myofibroblasts located in the wound. Through these studies, they were able to find a specific transcription factor, Zfp423, that was responsible for driving the myofibroblast progenitors to becoming adipocytes during embryogenesis. This is important because the transcription factor is most productive in adult mice due to their skin already containing surrounding fat cells around the wound which undergo existing redundant pathways during