Rate of wound healing

• inflammatory process progresses for several days

• granulation tissue formation starts within the first day, and this goes on for one or two weeks

• then, the fibroblasts that have been generated in the granulation tissue can crawl over a matrix of fibrinogen and fibronectin, dragging wound edges together—this is wound contraction

• wound contraction can pull something the size of a half dollar to something the size of a nickel or dime

• all this time, collagen is accumulating to reestablish the tissue integrity of the scar

• only 80% of the tensile strength of the normal tissue is regained by the end of wound healing, so this is an imperfect system

• collagen accumulation is delayed by protein deficiency (which isn’t surprising); ultimate strength of collagen is decreased by vitamin C deficiency because vitamin C crosslinks collagen fibers

Category: Pathology Notes