Skin soft tissue expansion is one of the most basic and commonly used techniques in plastic surgery to obtain excess skin for a variety of medical uses. However, skin soft tissue expansion is faced with many problems, such as long treatment process, poor skin quality, high retraction rate, and complications. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of skin soft tissue expansion is needed. The key to skin soft tissue expansion lies in the mechanical stretch applied to the skin by an inflatable expander. Mechanical stimulation activates multiple signaling pathways through cellular adhesion molecules and regulates gene expression profiles in cells. Meanwhile, various types of cells contribute to skin expansion, including keratinocytes, dermal fibroblasts, and mesenchymal stem cells, which are also regulated by mechanical stretch. This article reviews the molecular and cellular mechanisms of skin regeneration induced by mechanical stretch during skin soft tissue expansion.

TRPV3 is a non-selective cation channel that is highly expressed in keratinocytes in the skin. Traditionally, keratinocytes-expressed TRPV3 is involved in multiple physiological and pathological functions of the skin, such as itching, heat pain, and hair development. Although the underlying mechanisms by which TRPV3 functions in vivo remain obscure, recent research studies suggest that several cytokines and EGFR signaling pathways may be involved. However, there have also been other studies with opposite results that question the role of TRPV3 in heat pain. In addition, an increasing number of studies have suggested a novel role of TRPV3 in promoting skin regeneration, indicating that TRPV3 may become a new potential target for regulating skin regeneration. This paper not only reviews the role of keratinocytes-expressed TRPV3 in the physiological and pathological processes of itching, heat pain, hair development, and skin regeneration, but also reviews the relationship between TRPV3 gene mutations and skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD) and Olmsted syndrome (OS). This review will lay a foundation for further developing our understanding of the mechanisms by which TRPV3 is involved in itching, heat pain, and hair development, as well as the treatments for TRPV3-related skin diseases.