{"id":8999,"date":"2025-03-18T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T01:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=8999"},"modified":"2025-03-19T14:32:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T19:32:18","slug":"scientists-found-the-silent-scream-of-human-skin-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/03\/18\/scientists-found-the-silent-scream-of-human-skin-for-the-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Found The Silent ‘Scream’ of Human Skin For The First Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Science Alert<\/a> The body you inhabit is made up of lots of moving parts that need to communicate with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of this communication \u2013 in the nervous system, for example \u2013 takes the form of bioelectrical signals that propagate through the body to trigger the appropriate response. Now, US researchers have discovered that the epithelial cells that line our skin and organs are able to signal the same way to communicate peril. They just use a long, slow ‘scream’, rather than the rapid-fire communication of neurons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a huge surprise, since these cells had been previously considered ‘mute’ \u2013 and may open new avenues for electrical medical devices to accelerate healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Epithelial cells do things that no one has ever thought to look for,”\u00a0says polymath Steve Granick<\/a>\u00a0of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “When injured, they ‘scream’ to their neighbors, slowly, persistently, and over surprising distances. It’s like a nerve’s impulse, but 1,000 times slower.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n