The group of scientists of Belgium, Israel and Germany has found out, that Merkel cells develop from epidermal stem cells.

Specialised receptor cells which perceive the tactile borings arising at contact of a skin with subjects of environment, and transfer to their sensitive neurones, for the first time have been described in 1875 by the German anatomist and histologist Fridrihom Zigmundom Merkelem. Such cells settle down on especially sensitive sites of a skin, and on indicators of an expression of proteins they remind simultaneously and epithelial, and neuronal cells. There is nothing surprising that their parentage became a subject of scientific disputes: some consider as their precursors of a cell of a false skin, others - cells of the nervous platen.

Authors of described work experimented on mice. Using fluorescent labels, they have tracked occurrence of Merkel cells. As it has appeared, during embryonal development by their precursors epidermal cells serve; at adult individuals number of population of Merkel cells also support epidermal stem cells.

Besides, researchers managed to establish, that key role in formation of Merkel cells plays the factor of transcription Atoh1 which as it has been found out earlier, suppresses development of the rare form of a carcinoma cutaneum - carcinomas from Merkel cells. In the future scientists want to define, which functions this transcriptional carries out the factor, and what alarm ways regulate differentiation of cells in this case.