what’s to stop the body from going completely rogue during healing? Couldn’t it just make the completely wrong cells for a scratch or something?
In: Biology
So a clear example of this going wrong is keloid scarring – when a wound heals, something called granulation tissue is made, which is a mixture of connective tissue and microscopic blood vessels. In some people, too much of this forms, so the healed section basically overgrown and is full of connective tissue – collagen. That’s what makes keloid scars – those hard, raised, often shiny scars you see on some people.
We don’t completely understand why it happens, but during wound healing, our platelets in the wound release growth factors that bring in all of the other cells required to heal, make new tissue, and protect against infection. Fibroblasts are the cells responsible for making the extracellular matrix – the connective tissue needed to fix the wound and close it. Once the wound is closed, this extra extracellular matrix is normally slowly broken down – like when scars fade. If too much ECM is made, and not enough broken down, you end up with raised and firm scars.
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