When I say wounds, I don’t mean superficial wounds. Rather, deep dermal wounds. I do think we have the technology to do so now. First off, there are very huge advances in tissue regeneration recently, with scientists predicting that we will be able to regenerate limbs and organs in the future. Before being able to regenerate tissue, they have to stop the mechanism of scarring.
According to Atala’s law: “It all leads back to the scar. Eliminate the scar and you can
regenerate tissue, even digits and complex organs. You don’t eliminate the scar you cannot regenerate tissue.”
I think most of you would know that if you operate on a fetus within the first three months of pregnancy in humans, you would get completely no scarring. Therefore, humans do have an innate ability to heal completely without scarring.
A non-denatured extra-cellular matrix would be capable of regenerating wounds totally without scarring. Like ECM, and hyaluronic acid, decorin (a component of ECM) has been studied and a lot of products are being designed on its micro mechanisms of action.
In wounds it is known there is a race between scarring and regeneration. Decorin stops scarring by keeping the fibrils slender. Decorin plays a part in non denatured ECM healing. (Question,would decorin salvage slightly denatured ECM?). It is the factor that tells the ECM I’m not injured, do not scar, and let the ECM be normally woven without the over expression of collagen on the fibers. Decorin completely hinders the scarring response which enables intercellular tissues to crawl up the ECM to win the race.
Decorin is a normal human protein, and naturally occurring extracellular matrix protein, a proteoglycan that has a regulatory effect mechanism over TGF-β, and whilst inhibiting TGF-B it increases the expression of key MMPs that break down the ECM. Evidence shows that decorin is required for the proper assembly of collagenous matrices
quote: “Decorin-treated wounds have been found to exhibit essentially no detectable scarring compared to control wounds not treated with decorin. The TGF-β-induced scarring process has been shown to be unique to adults and third trimester human fetuses, but is essentially absent in fetuses during the first two trimesters. The absence of scarring in fetal wounds has been correlated with the absence of TGFβ in the wound bed. In contrast, the wound bed of adult tissue is heavily deposited with TGF-β and the fully healed wound is replaced by a reddened, furrowed scar containing extensively fibrous, collagenous matrix. The decorin-treated wounds were histologically normal and resembled fetal wounds in the first two trimesters.”
source: Methods of preventing or reducing scarring with decorin or biglycan - The, Burnham Institute
It is clearly understood that scarring occurs due to collagen over expression which dense up the collagen fibers in ECM which blocks pathways. In 2006 it was officially announced in a publication that this ECM protein can completely inhibit scarring by inhibiting collagen overexpression. Allowing our intercellular tissues to grow through the ECM just like what happens in scar free healing.
Recombinant Human Decorin Inhibits Cell Proliferation and Downregulates TGF-β1
Production in Keloid Fibroblasts
VOLUME: 18 PUBLICATION DATE: Aug 01 2006
At decorin concentrations of 100 nM and 200 nM, fibroblast proliferation was completely inhibited (P < 0.001), and the expected temporal increase in absorbance units was completely abolished, indicating a static population (Figure 1).
http://www.woundsresearch.com/article/6067
