A research team from the University of Bristol recently published a new study in Physical Review Letters. They developed a mathematical model that demonstrates for the first time that tissue forces around a wound play a crucial role in the healing process.

A key step in wound healing is re-epithelialization, the process by which skin cells spread to cover the wound. Past research has primarily focused on the wound itself, neglecting the influence of surrounding tissues. This new study found that wound healing accelerates when surrounding tissues contract towards the center of the wound, and slows down when tissues expand outwards.

Researchers used fruit flies as a model and employed deep learning technology to analyze the arrangement of thousands of cells. They discovered that the cells in fruit fly wings are highly ordered and arranged in the same direction. Based on this observation, they developed a mathematical model that treats tissue as a "living fluid," thereby calculating the forces generated within the surrounding tissue.

The model predicted that forces from surrounding tissue would alter the shape of the wound, aligning it with the cell alignment. Researchers then compared the predictions with actual experimental data and found a perfect match.

Henry Andraloits, a co-author of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Bristol, said that all previous mechanical models of wound healing ignored the forces of surrounding tissues, and this study fills that gap.

Another co-author, Professor Tannemora Liverpool, added that these findings offer new insights into promoting chronic wound healing—perhaps in the future, wound closure could be accelerated by modulating the tension of surrounding tissues.

Original source: University of Bristol

Published in: Physical Review Letters