Stretching the skin to expand knowledge
Can stretching the skin change how we feel touch, pain, and temperature? Surprisingly, yes! Associate Professor Aragona and her team will look into how and why, thanks to the Serendipity Grant Scheme research grant worth almost 4 million DKK from the LEO Foundation. The Serendipity Grant Scheme supports research projects that arise from unexpected yet promising findings during ongoing LEO Foundation-funded projects.
Our skin is not just a protective outer layer – it’s our largest organ. It’s incredibly complex and made up of different types of cells that work together to protect us from infections, regulate our temperature, and give us our sense of touch. Two key players in this system are epidermal cells — the surface cells you can touch — and fibroblasts, which lie underneath and help support them.
Funded by the LEO Foundation, Aragona and her team have been able to study how these two cell types interact during stretch-mediated tissue expansion, a common surgical technique used in plastic surgery, including breast reconstruction after mastectomy. This method involves placing an inflatable balloon under the skin to gently stretch it and stimulate new tissue growth. Their work revealed that stretching the skin stimulates the self-renewal of epidermal stem cells. This insight could improve the production of skin grafts used in burn treatment and reconstructive surgery.
Unexpectedly, the team observed that peripheral nerves appear to retract during skin stretching, no longer reaching the top layer of the skin where they usually detect pain, touch, and temperature. This raises new questions about how stretching affects nerve function and skin sensitivity—questions that remain largely unanswered. In light of this serendipitous discovery, Aragona and her lab aim to understand the cellular mechanisms behind this process and how it leads to loss of skin sensitivity in patients.
Starting in early 2026, the team will delve deeper into stretch-mediated tissue expansion and its potential link to the loss of sensitivity reported by some patients after breast reconstructive surgery. Although this method has been effective and safe for decades, it may have side effects. In some cases, patients who undergo this surgery experience numbness or reduced sensitivity in the reconstructed area, which can also have a significant psychological impact.
“Having a breast and not feeling it—that’s not the same as normal. While it may not be a matter of life or death, a reconstruction that feels as natural as possible will significantly impact the quality of life,” says Aragona.
If we can understand how the peripheral nerves are affected and how we can restore their function, it could ultimately lead to new treatments that improve sensory outcomes for patients undergoing reconstructive surgery. ‘‘In 2023 only, more than 150 million procedures were reported. This would be a game changer for women who need to undergo breast reconstruction surgery,’’ says Aragona.
While the research could have clear benefits for breast reconstruction, Aragona emphasizes that the same technique is also used for reconstructing other areas of the skin, such as eyelid reconstruction. This makes the findings relevant across different patient groups and medical conditions.