Cell discovery key to new drugs for skin diseases

A New Zealand discovery into how skin cells react to inflammation could provide a breakthrough in treating skin diseases, University of Auckland scientists said Thursday.
Scientists at the university found that skin cells had an appetite for fat during inflammation, with small organelles, known as mitochondria, that take in nutrients and create energy, while controlling the immune response in the cells.
"The discovery highlights how mitochondria in the skin can use fatty acids to help drive inflammation associated with infection and wound healing," researcher Dr. Chris Hall said in a statement.
"Excessive inflammation within the skin can be detrimental and contributes to inflammatory skin diseases such as dermatitis," he said.
"It is hoped that we will be able to develop drugs to block this new metabolic-immunologic connection with the skin cells and treat these diseases."
The discoveries were made in zebrafish, a tropical fish that is used widely in biomedical research.
"The mechanisms we have found can be both good and bad: good because attracting immune cells to the skin during inflammation can help fight infection, but bad because some immune cells can also destroy host tissues," he said.