Why and how is Scar tissue different than the rest of your body’s tissues?
In: Biology
To explain the why: You can imagine scar tissue like patching on a road. The material with which construction workers would patch a road is different than the material they would use to create the road, because the structures serve fundamentally different purposes. The road itself requires strength and stability and durability. The patch just needs to “hang in there” for a while, and keep the hole in the road from getting bigger than it already is.
To explain the how: collagen is a material in your skin that makes it stretchy and helps it hold its form. Part of the reason why older people have less supple skin is because collagen production decreases over time, which contributes to skin sagging. Normal skin contains collagen woven together to create a stretchy, resilient covering. A scar’s collagen is arranged in parallel to one another, which is (in some ways) advantageous in the case of an open wound. The skin can stretch itself closed quickly because of this arrangement, but is less strong and durable than the woven pattern.
Edit: a few words for clarity
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