The wounded worm: Using C. elegans to understand the molecular basis of skin wound healing

The ability to heal wounds is an ancient and conserved function of epidermal epithelial layers. The importance of skin wound healing to human life and biology has long been evident, however many of the molecular mechanisms underlying wound repair remain little understood. In the past several years, analysis of the C. elegans innate immune response to fungal infection of the epidermis has led to investigations of the ability of the C. elegans skin to respond to damage. In a recent paper we used live imaging to investigate the cell biological basis of wound repair in the adult C. elegans epidermis. We found that needle or laser injury of the skin triggers a large and sustained increase in epidermal calcium. Epidermal calcium signals appear to specifically promote actin-dependent processes of wound closure. The innate immune and wound closure responses act in parallel to promote survival after injury. Our findings indicate that wounding triggers multiple signals in the C. elegans skin. C. elegans offers a tractable model to dissect how epidermal epithelia activate coordinated responses to repair damage.