ArticleDisease models & mechanisms2026
Evidence that xylazine disrupts skin homeostasis by acting on epithelial cells through the kappa opioid receptor.
Article in Disease models & mechanisms, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Musculoskeletal imaging findings of xylazine-associated wounds.Emergency radiology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The veterinary sedative and alpha-2 adrenergic receptor (α2AR) agonist xylazine, found in the illicit opioid supply, is associated with cutaneous wounds in humans. Here, we developed a larval zebrafish model of xylazine-induced tissue damage to investigate the mechanisms by which xylazine affects the skin. Xylazine treatment caused keratinocyte extrusion, tissue-wide skin contraction and disruption of basal keratinocyte cell-cell interactions in zebrafish larvae. Notably, other α2AR agonists did not recapitulate most of these effects. Xylazine was recently described as a kappa opioid receptor (κOR) agonist, and we found that both xylazine and a separate κOR agonist acted directly on epithelial cells to drive cellular contraction and disrupt tissue homeostasis. Our model suggests that xylazine disrupts skin homeostasis through a direct mechanism involving epithelial cells and κOR, which may be of importance for the treatment of these wounds.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.