Scentful Solution for Skin Wounds

Keratinocytes are the major cell type of the epidermal layer, which express a variety of different sensory receptors that enable them to react to various environmental stimuli and process information in the skin.  Daniela Busse, from Ruhr-Universitat – Bochum (Germany), and colleagues studied the olfactory receptor that occurs in the skin, namely OR2AT4, and discovered that it is activated by a synthetic sandalwood scent.  The activated OR2AT4 receptor triggers a calcium-dependent signal pathway, which ensures an increased proliferation and a quicker migration of skin cells – processes which typically facilitate wound healing.  Observing that skin cells possess an olfactory receptor for sandalwood scent, the study authors submit that: “These findings combined with our studies on human skin organ cultures strongly indicate that the olfactory receptor 2AT4 is involved in human keratinocyte reepithelialization during wound healing processes.”