In living mice filmed for five months, female skin stem cells stayed in step and closed wounds faster

What the research found

Study (mice, plus human skin grown in the lab). Dan Engelman, Cédric Blanpain, Benjamin D. Simons, and colleagues at the Université libre de Bruxelles and the University of Cambridge report in Nature (published 14 Oct 2026; DOI 10.1038/s41586-026-11159-2). They followed individual epidermal stem cells through the skin of living mice for five months. In females, sister cells often made the same next choice together. In males, sister cells were less synchronized. Castration made male skin behave more like female skin; dihydrotestosterone restored the male pattern. Removing the ovaries slowed stem-cell multiplication and nearly erased the synchrony; estradiol restored proliferation. On back wounds, females closed the injury faster in the first days. Testosterone also sped differentiation in human skin reconstructed in the laboratory. This does not show that a hormone product will change human healing. Not medical advice.

Evidence level: Animal study. Results in animals or cells often don't carry over to people.

Read the original at Université libre de Bruxelles / Nature