Without the ability to heal wounds every scratch, nick, scrape and cut would remain open, a permanent and painful reminder of the body’s frailty.
Yet this basic process of life goes largely unrecognized because it works so effectively.
Wound healing requires the activation of over 10,000 genes, a precise, sequential release of hundreds of chemicals and the growth, division and migration of millions of different types of cells. It is usually only when wound healing fails, leaving us with a chronic wound, that we ever are aware of the process.
Normal wound healing involves four distinct phases: the clotting of blood, inflammation, proliferation and remodeling. Chemicals released from the cells of the damaged capillaries, the work of platelets and formation of the blood clot initiate the healing process …. full article