The research group at the Graduate School of Osaka University has succeeded for the first time in the world in visualizing the three-dimensional structure of human sweat glands, which leads to the elucidation of sweat gland contraction during sweating.It is expected to contribute to the treatment of heat stroke and hyperhidrosis and the development of new antiperspirants.
Against the backdrop of global warming and a super-aging society, the increase in patients with hyperhidrosis and heat stroke has become a social problem.In order to improve the impaired sweating function, it is necessary to understand the structure of the sweat glands that contract during sweating, but the sweat glands have a complicated structure and could not be elucidated by conventional analysis.
This time, the research group used the "whole mount immunostaining method" to examine the spatial distribution of cells by staining whole tissues and organs.First, in order to understand the complex coil structure of the sweat glands, the sweat glands were visualized three-dimensionally using markers that can be identified for each component of the sweat glands.As a result, the secretory glands in the coil structure have a twisted three-dimensional structure so that the tube itself squeezes the towel, and the myoepithelial cells covering the secretory glands are lined up along the twisting direction of the tube of the secretory gland. It turned out to be.
Furthermore, when the nerves required for sweating stimulation were also visualized three-dimensionally, the nerves surrounded only the myoepithelial cells of the secretory glands.This characteristic three-dimensional structure is completely different from other secretory glands (mammary gland and salivary gland), and it was expected that sweat would be discharged by a unique secretory mechanism.
Further elucidation of the basic mechanism of sweat gland contraction is expected to lead to elucidation and treatment of sweat-related diseases (heat stroke and hyperhidrosis).Furthermore, in the area of antiperspirants, which used to focus on the function of covering the sweat glands, antiperspirants with a new function that can control the amount of sweat by acting directly on the sweat glands are available. May be suggested.
Paper Information: [PLOS ONE] “Three-dimensional Cell Shapes and Arrangements in Human Sweat Glands as Revealed by Whole-mount Immunostaining
