From scarless fetal wounds to keloids: Molecular studies in wound healing

Abstract

Surgical researchers were among the first to describe the different phases of wound healing and the events in tissue repair and regeneration that were taking place during each phase. The understanding of these events has been significantly enhanced in recent years by modern techniques in molecular and cellular biology. In this article, we discuss new findings in scarless fetal repair, angiogenesis in wound healing, and keloid pathogenesis. This serves to highlight the advances that have been made and also how much remains to be understood.