Advanced imaging enables greater understanding of wound healing

The imaging equipment was used by a team at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) to observe the motion of cells in synthetic wounds that mimic human skin. Their results are detailed in PNAS.

An essential component of wound healing is re-epithelialisation, a process in which the epithelial cell found on skin moves to form a bridge between the wound and the skin, closing its gap.

Previous studies have found that zig zag wounds healed faster than straight wounds, but little is known about how different wound curvatures (shape) and wound sizes influence healing efficiency, nor about the mechanism of re-epithelialisation.

To investigate, the NTU scientists prepared synthetic wounds with a range of widths (30 micrometres to 100 micrometres) and curvatures (radius of curvature: 30 micrometre, 75 micrometre,150 micrometre and straight line) to learn how cells moved to close wound gaps in different circumstances.

Using particle image velocimetry researchers found that wavy wounds induced more complex collective cell movements, such as a swirly, vortex-like motion. By contrast in a straight wound, cells moved parallel to the wound front, moving in straight lines.