Surprising mechanism for removing dead cells identified: « The system is seemingly spatially tuned to the presence of corpses, and it only functions when each receptor picks up the signal is attuned to. If one of them disappears, the mechanism stops operating. »

« It’s been pretty broadly thought that professional phagocytes eventually swoop in and do the heavy cleanup, and that non-motile cells were a sort of backup system. I was very surprised to find that the hair follicle stem cells were actually the first responders, especially because mouse skin is fairly well-endowed with macrophages, so they’re not even that far away. »