Embryos as a Model for Wound-Induced Transcriptional Dynamics: Genetic Strategies to Achieve a Localized Wound Response.

While many studies have established a paradigm for tissue repair at the level of cellular remodeling, it is not clear how an organism restricts a response only to the injured region of a damaged tissue. Skin, the largest organ in the human body, is prone to injury, and repair of epidermal tissue represents a medically relevant system to investigate. Studies in provide a robust genetic system to identify molecular components that will positively impact repair and healing. The skin consists of a single-cell epidermal layer and relies on well-conserved cellular mechanisms to coordinate gene expression during development. Many studies have established that key developmental genes promote a response to epidermal injury, but the balance between activator and inhibitor signals to coordinate a localized response remains unknown. Discovery of a genetic pathway that promotes the restriction of transcriptional response to damage only in effected regions. Interestingly, genome-wide microarray studies have identified an intersection between gene expression after aseptic injury and activation of the innate immune response. The use of a transcriptional activation reporter provides an innovative approach to uncover well-conserved components that promote the localization of a response during epidermal injury and may influence other pathological conditions of tissue damage. The work reviewed in this critical review may lead to development of molecular strategies of repair and improved healing after injury or infection. The outcomes on the fundamental contribution of a transcriptional response to injury will be translatable to mammalian systems.