Restoration versus reconstruction: cellular mechanisms of skin, nerve and muscle regeneration compared

Table 1 Kinetics of wound healing of the epidermis: main phases and players

	Destruction	Repair	Remodeling
	Days following injury
When	1 to 3	4 to 7	8 to 14
Where	clot	granulation tissue (GT)	epidermis late GT
What	clotting	migration new tissue formation	hyperproliferation remodeling
Who	mast cells ⁽¹⁾	keratinocytes ⁽⁴⁾	fibroblasts ⁽⁷⁾
	macrophages ⁽²⁾	myofibroblasts ⁽⁵⁾	myofibroblasts ⁽⁸⁾
	neutrophils ⁽³⁾	endothelial cells ⁽⁶⁾	myofibroblasts ⁽⁸⁾
How	histamine ⁽¹⁾	proteases ⁽⁴⁾	EGF ⁽⁷⁾
How	cytokines ⁽²⁾	SDF1, HGF ⁽⁵⁾
	ROS ⁽³⁾	VEGF ⁽⁶⁾

Following injury, regeneration of the skin can be schematically divided in three main phases. In human skin, wound healing is accomplished in weeks. In addition to the timeline (When), each row indicates the tissue involved (Where), the main output (What), the cell type involved most (Who) and some of the main molecular mediators (How) responsible for the various phases of wound healing. Epidermal growth factor (EGF); fibroblast growth factor (FGF); hepatocyte growth factor (HGF); stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF1); vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Matching superscripts highlight the cells that produce the corresponding growth factors.

ISSN: 2050-490X