| The molecular bases of skin development, wound healing and skin diseases like psoriasis and skin cancer are still poorly understood. Keratinocytes are the major cell type of the skin. We will study the role of beta1integrins, a major group of extra cellular matrix receptors, in keratinocytes in health and disease in vivo. We generated already mice that lack beta1 integrin in keratinocytes, but not in any other tissue. These mice have severe skin defects and a complete loss of hairs. Furthermore, we will replace beta1 integrin by mutant forms of the protein in order to study the mechanisms of integrin action. These mice will be analysed in molecular and cellular aspects under normal conditions, during wound healing, in a psoriasis model and in various skin cancer models. In addition, cell lines will be established from these mice and characterised in vitro. We expect to obtain valuable information about the function, the underlying mechanism, and the target gene of beta1 integrinsin keratinocytes These data will deepen our understanding of skin physiology and path physiology and might in the future allow the development of new therapeutic schemes for skin diseases. |