The process of wound healing

Within seconds of skin injury, vasoconstriction occurs to reduce blood loss. As blood spills into the wounded area, platelets come into contact with and adhere to the wall 

It should be noted that the normal inflammatory phase of wound healing should not be confused with the abnormal inflammation secondary to clinical infection, which tends to produce a raised temperature and raised white cell count. 

In general, wound healing is a well-coordinated process provided that the individual patient is nutritionally robust, hemodynamically well, and biochemically stable. 

3 Functional requirements for modern wound-care materials 

Source Smart Textiles for Medicine and Healthcare (Chapter 2 Smart woundcare materials). Woodhead Publishing, 2007. 

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Contact inhibition is observed in the process of wound healing and describes the ability of a tissue to stop cell proliferation again after cellular multiplication has filled up the defect caused by a wound. 

The technology of Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) was introduced into clinical medicine more than three decades ago. This form of treatment has great appeal due to its novelty, ease in use, relatively cost-efficient and low morbidity profile [5], LLLT has been shown to improve remarkably the process of wound healing in humans [5-8] and animal models [9-11], In vitro studies demonstrated that LLLT has a stimulating effect on cell mitosis [12] and proliferation and migration of fibroblasts [13], keratinocytes [14, 15] and endothelial cells [16], LLLT enhances NO secretion [17] and cytokine production [18, 19] and may lead to increased dermal angiogenesis [20],... 

Wichman, B.E. (1955). The mast cell count during the process of wound healing. Acta Path. Microbiol. Scand. 108 Suppl. 1-35. 

The process of wound healing after thermal injury (e.g. from laser treatment) involves re-epithelialization that starts within the first few hours after injury and continues throughout the different proliferative phases of skin repair. Viable keratinocytes (Figure 3.2) that are at the edge of the wound and have not suffered lethal or sublethal heat shock... 

The temperature, moisture and strain sensors shown in Figure 4.26 can be used to monitor the process of wound healing. The illustrated geometries can be used to measure the temperature due to a change of electrical resistance, the moisture content due to a change of capacity and the strain due to a change of inductance. 

There is one common characteristic among all these biodegradable biomaterials they don t actively participate in the process of wound healing, tissue regeneration engineering. In other words, these biomaterials are not alive and can t remodel or/and release cytokines upon stimulation like normal tissues. These biomaterials, however, elicit inflammatory and foreign body reactions and play a passive role in wound... 

Figure 6.3 Schematic diagram of the processes of wounding healing, secondary damage, and abortive regeneration in the CNS. Reproduced with permission from M.T. Fitch and J. Silver, Experimental Neurology, 2008, 209, 2, 294. 2008, Elsevier [16]...

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