Abstract
The skin is the largest organ in the body and plays multiple essential roles ranging from regulating temperature, preventing infection and ultimately defining who we are physically. It is a highly dynamic organ that constantly replaces the outermost cells throughout life. However, when faced with a major injury, human skin cannot restore a significant lesion to its original functionality, instead a reparative scar is formed. In contrast to this, many other species have the unique ability to regenerate full thickness skin without formation of scar tissue. Here we review recent advances in the field that shed light on how the skin cells in regenerative species react to injury to prevent scar formation versus scar forming humans.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 144-154 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Developmental Biology |
Volume | 433 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 15 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Keith Sabin for feedback on the manuscript and Christophe Echeverri for help with illustrations. This work is supported by NIH NICHD R01 HD092451 to KE.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords
- Collagen
- Regeneration
- Scar
- Skin