How are our bodies able to differentiate between cuts, burns, punctures, bruises, scratches etc through pain and how do they heal differently?
In: Biology
It’s a different view on the cellular level. As a structural cell, you expect to have structural connections to your neighbors, flow of intracellular fluid and stuff dissolved in it, and all sorts of material delivered through blood, even if nowhere near a major blood vessel. Cells along membranes expect some normal level of pressure and flow of various materials permitted through the membrane.
Damage may mean a cell is now exposed to outside air, structural elements broken, unusual pressure or even collapse due to rupture, changes in the flow of chemicals (nutrients, hormones, all sorts of signaling molecules, etc.), neighboring cells acting differently.
Many cells may perish from the abnormal conditions. Surviving structural cells will try to reattach to neighbors, or split apart to build new ones. Various cells in your bloodstream will react as necessary: platelets to mend breaks, macrophages to deal with foreign material, release of histamines to increase fluid flow and attract immune response. The cells will keep responding until the unusual conditions are no longer present, even if they can’t perceive that their region of the body has been bludgeoned or seared or scraped.
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