Project description
This project investigates how enhancing efferocytosis—the clearance of apoptotic cells by phagocytes—can improve skin injury repair and accelerate wound closure. Efficient removal of dying cells is essential for maintaining tissue homeostasis, limiting inflammation, and promoting repair. In the skin, effective clearance of apoptotic cells at wound sites is critical for resolving inflammation and restoring the barrier, a process that is often impaired in chronic wounds such as those associated with diabetes or in excessive healing responses that lead to fibrosis.
The project will develop tools to enhance efferocytosis in vivo, using advanced techniques and genetic mouse models to systematically examine the impact of boosting this process during skin repair and subsequent inflammatory challenges. It will also explore whether prior phagocytic activity induces lasting changes in phagocytes and neighboring cells—an “efferocytic memory”—that influences responses to future injury.
Ultimately, this work aims to provide fundamental insight into the mechanisms of efferocytosis and its potential as a therapeutic strategy for improving cutaneous wound healing.
Grant category: Research Grants
Amount: DKK 3,986,871