Well, everyone experiences wound in their life atleast once especially when learning bicycle. Most of the wounds leave scars on the body.
But not anymore!
Researchers found a way for this.
Instead of scar tissue, skin can be regenerated where the wound occurred.
"Essentially, we can manipulate wound healing so that it leads to skin regeneration rather than scarring," said principal investigator George Cotsarelis, Professor of Dermatology at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, US.
How Wounds Leave Scars?
When wound heal as scars, fat cells called adipocytes which are normally found in the skin will be lost. The most common cells found in healing wounds are myofibroblasts, which were thought to only form a scar. Scar tissue also does not have any hair follicles associated with it.
Researchers found these very abnormal and used these characteristics in changing the already present myofibroblasts into fat cells that do not cause scarring.
"The secret is to regenerate hair follicles first. After that, the fat will regenerate in response to the signals from those follicles," Cotsarelis said
The study showed hair and fat develop separately but not independently. The new study – published online in the journal Science – details additional factors actually produced by the regenerating hair follicle to convert the surrounding myofibroblasts to regenerate as fat instead of forming a scar.
"Typically, myofibroblasts were thought to be incapable of becoming a different type of cell," Cotsarelis said.
"But our work shows we have the ability to influence these cells, and that they can be efficiently converted into adipocytes," Cotsarelis noted.
This was shown in both the mouse and in human keloid cells grown in culture.
"The findings show we have a window of opportunity after wounding to influence the tissue to regenerate rather than scar," said the study's lead author Maksim Plikus, Assistant Professor at University of California, Irvine.
Let’s hope more and more findings come out that helps mankind.
