Skin wound healing in humans and mice: Challenges in translational research
Abstract
Despite the great progress in translational research concerning skin wound healing in the last few decades, no animal model fully predicts all clinical outcomes. The mouse is the most commonly used model, as it is easy to maintain and standardize, and is economically accessible. However, differences between murine and human skin repair, such as the contraction promoted by panniculus carnosus and the role of specific niches of skin stem cells, make it difficult to bridge the gap between preclinical and clinical studies. Therefore, this review highlights the particularities of each species concerning skin morphophysiology, immunology, and genetics, which is essential to properly interpret findings and translate them to medicine.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Mice and pigs have critical differences in skin morphology and disease processes from human skin, complicating research translation.
“Furthermore, human skin models are necessary to reduce the reliance on animal models such as mice and pigs, where the skin morphology and disease processes have critical differences from that of human skin, complicating research translation [1, 2].”
From The empowering influence of air-liquid interface culture on skin organoid hair follicle development (2025) · cites this paper as [1]
There are critical differences between mouse and human skin, such as the mechanisms of wound closure, which have confounded efforts to translate therapies to the clinic.
“Yet, there are critical differences between mouse and human skin, such as the mechanisms of wound closure, which have confounded efforts to translate therapies to the clinic”
From Generation and characterization of hair-bearing skin organoids from human pluripotent stem cells (2022) · cites this paper as [18]
These differences impact epidermal homeostasis, wound repair, and the severity of certain skin disorders.
“These differences impact epidermal homeostasis, wound repair, and the severity of certain skin disorders”
From Single-cell transcriptomics of human-skin-equivalent organoids (2023) · cites this paper as [5]
Cites
Initial sequencing and comparative analysis of the mouse genome
Mouse Genome Sequencing Consortium (2002) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature01262 · Cited by 7,187 · see citing works
Defensins: antimicrobial peptides of innate immunity
Ganz, T. (2003) · Nature Reviews Immunology · doi:10.1038/nri1180 · Cited by 3,066 · see citing works
Dermcidin: A novel human antibiotic peptide secreted by sweat glands
Schittek, B., Hipfel, R., Sauer, B., Bauer, J., Kalbacher, H., Stevanovic, S., Schirle, M., Schroeder, K., Blin, N., Meier, F., et al. (2001) · Nature Immunology · doi:10.1038/ni732 · Cited by 730 · see citing works
Ishida, Y., Kondo, T., Kimura, A., Matsushima, K., & Mukaida, N. (2006) · The Journal of Immunology · doi:10.4049/jimmunol.176.9.5598 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A Single-Cell Transcriptomic Atlas of Human Skin Aging
Zou, Z., Long, X., Zhao, Q., Zheng, Y., Song, M., Ma, S., Jing, Y., Wang, S., He, Y., Esteban, C. R., et al. (2021) · Developmental Cell · doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2020.11.002 · Cited by 402 · see citing works
The Role of Myofibroblasts in Physiological and Pathological Tissue Repair
Schuster, R., Younesi, F., Ezzo, M., & Hinz, B. (2023) · Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology · doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a041231 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
A systematic review of the effect of Centella asiatica on wound healing
Arribas-López, E., Zand, N., Ojo, O., Snowden, M. J., & Kochhar, T. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph19063266 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Generation and characterization of hair-bearing skin organoids from human pluripotent stem cells
Lee, J., van der Valk, W. H., Serdy, S. A., Deakin, C., Kim, J., Le, A. P., & Koehler, K. R. (2022) · Nature Protocols · doi:10.1038/s41596-022-00681-y · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Vascularized 3D Human Skin Models in the Forefront of Dermatological Research
Rimal, R., Muduli, S., Desai, P., Marquez, A. B., Möller, M., Platzman, I., Spatz, J., & Singh, S. (2024) · Advanced Healthcare Materials · doi:10.1002/adhm.202303351 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Single-cell transcriptomics of human-skin-equivalent organoids
Stabell, A. R., Lee, G. E., Jia, Y., Wong, K. N., Wang, S., Ling, J., Nguyen, S. D., Sen, G. L., Nie, Q., & Atwood, S. X. (2023) · Cell Reports · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112511 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
The empowering influence of air-liquid interface culture on skin organoid hair follicle development
Sun, J., Ahmed, I., Brown, J., Khosrotehrani, K., & Shafiee, A. (2025) · Burns & Trauma · doi:10.1093/burnst/tkae070 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zomer, H. D., & Trentin, A. G.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Zomer, Helena D.
- ORCID
- Zomer, Helena D.
- Venue
- Journal of Dermatological Science
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-04
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-12
- ISSN
- 0923-1811 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2780153520
- Cited by
- 534
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 64 · 2025: 76 · 2024: 84 · 2023: 73 · 2022: 89 · 2021: 83 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 9 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 2.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Dermatological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministério da Saúde (MS-SCTIE-DECIT)
- Ministério da Ciência
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Wound Healing and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Urology › Hair Growth and Disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Dermatology › Dermatologic Treatments and Research
- Keywords
- skin wound healing, translational research, mouse model, human-mouse differences, panniculus carnosus, skin stem cells, skin repair, preclinical to clinical translation, skin immunology
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Disease Models, Animal, Humans, Skin, Skin Physiological Phenomena, Species Specificity, Wound Healing, Mice, Translational Research, Biomedical
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
