The protective role of the skin
Our skin plays a key role for our health. Indeed, the largest organ of our body serves as a barrier at once physical, chemical and immune, to protect our organism against all the external things that can harm it, such as bacteria, viruses or pollutants.
But if the skin finds itself stretched, it would make the corneocytes less compact with each other and therefore more permeable, and to activate receptors that strengthen the immune defenses. This gave a surprising idea to a research team, which works on the possibility of administering in the future of vaccines without needle.
Future vaccines could be administered without needle
Researchers have indeed published a study on this subject on September 17, 2025 in the journal Cell Reports. They explain that they have stretched the skin of mice and human skin samples for 20 minutes, passing skin tension (the natural force exerted on the skin to keep it tense and stretched on the body) from 1.5 Newton to around 6 Newton.
They discovered that this stretch triggers several reactions: the structure of collagen changes, skin cells detect tension and produce inflammatory substances, which attracts immune cells. In addition, this opens the hair follicles, making it possible to increase their permeability to allow the passage of molecules.
Other tests carried out on mice have shown that stretching led to an increase in the number of immune cells at the skin level, and that this offered the same immune responses as when the latter had not been stretched.
An idea that raises questions
The objective of this study is to show that people can completely self-administer topical vaccines, that is to say on the skin or a mucous membrane, in order to act locally without going through blood circulation.
“There is no bleeding or skin rupture, it is not invasive”said the authors of the study, who also indicate that once the tension emitted to stretch the skin relaxes, the latter remains in this state for about 15 minutes.
Although the results are promising and the study was described as “very interesting”, the site of Newscientist informs us that this practice arouses many questions, especially on the precision of the vaccine to reach its target.
Other studies are expected, in particular to know if the vaccines without needles work in humans, even if the researchers are optimistic in views of the hair follicles of man, which are larger and less numerous than those of the mouse, which means that there will be more space between them during the stretching of the skin and therefore, better permeability.
Source: Newscientist
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