Scientists have discovered a new human sense of touch...what is it?

Arabia Weather - A recent study showed a new discovery through which humans can feel light touches through hair follicles. Whereas, it was previously believed that the sensation of touch depends only on the nerve endings in the skin and around the hair follicles.

Hair follicle cells play a key role in our sensation of light touch

The research team, led by researchers from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, used RNA sequencing to discover that outer root sheath (ORS) cells in hair follicles carry a higher proportion of touch-sensitive receptors than cells in the surrounding skin. In vitro cultures contain human hair follicle cells, as well as sensory nerves. When the hair follicle cells were mechanically stimulated, the adjacent sensory nerves became active.

Experiments also showed that the neurotransmitters serotonin and histamine are released by ORS cells through small sacs called vesicles, which indicates that they play a role in communication between different cells.

This discovery opens new doors for research. It raises questions about the role of these cells and what we can benefit from them in understanding how we perceive touch on our skin. It also shows the importance of hair follicle cells in better directing the sensation of touch, especially with low-threshold mechanoreceptors that work to sense gentle touches.

Although the role of hair in the sense of touch was previously known, this study revealed new biological details about the interaction between ORS cells and mechanoreceptors, and the main challenge now is to understand why these cells play this role and what significant impact they play in this process. .

What is also worth noting in this research is that the experiments were repeated using skin cells instead of hair follicle cells, and resulted in the release of a large amount of histamine, but very small amounts of serotonin, and this difference indicates a unique pattern of activity in ORS cells.

Taking into account the important role that histamine plays in skin diseases, such as eczema, these discoveries could open the door for further research to understand how hair follicles detect touch, and thus develop new treatments and preventive measures .

Researcher Claire Higgins comments:

“Our work reveals a new role for skin cells in histamine release, which could help improve research into inflammatory skin diseases, such as eczema.”

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Sources:

sciencealert

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depositphotos