Mechanisms of stretch-mediated skin expansion at single-cell resolution

The ability of the skin to grow in response to stretching has been exploited in reconstructive surgery(1). Although the response of epidermal cells to stretching has been studied in vitro(2,3), it remains unclear how mechanical forces affect their behaviour in vivo. Here we develop a mouse model in which the consequences of stretching on skin epidermis can be studied at single-cell resolution. Using a multidisciplinary approach that combines clonal analysis with quantitative modelling and single-cell RNA sequencing, we show that stretching induces skin expansion by creating a transient bias in the renewal activity of epidermal stem cells, while a second subpopulation of basal progenitors remains committed to differentiation. Transcriptional and chromatin profiling identifies how cell states and gene-regulatory networks are modulated by stretching. Using pharmacological inhibitors and mouse mutants, we define the step-by-step mechanisms that control stretch-mediated tissue expansion at single-cell resolution in vivo. Single-cell analysis in a mouse model of skin stretching shows that stretching causes a transient expansion bias in a population of epidermal stem cells, which is associated with chromatin remodelling and changes in transcriptional profiles.