Microvesicles: Intercellular messengers in cutaneous wound healing

Cutaneous wound healing

Chemokines in cutaneous wound healing.

Healing of wounds is one of the most complex biological events after birth as a result of the interplay of different tissue structures and a large number of resident and infiltrating cell types. The latter are mainly constituted by leukocyte subsets (neutrophils, macrophages, mast cells, and lymphocytes), which sequentially infiltrate the wound site and serve as immunological effector cells but...

Basic mechanisms in the healing cutaneous wound.

The process of wound healing can be divided into substrate, proliferative, and remodeling phases. The basic biologic and physiologic events which transpire during these stages are examined in detail. Particular emphasis is placed on the interactions between platelets, macrophages, and other inflammatory cells, and fibroblasts in the healing wound. Recent advances in the roles played by interleu...

Mast Cells in Cutaneous Wound Healing

Mast cells are suggested to participate in wound healing, but their specific role has remained obscure. Mast cells are a rich source of inflammatory mediators, such as histamine, proteoglycans, the proteases tryptase and chymase, lipids, growth factors and cytokines. Among these mediators, there are many that have effects on cell growth, tissue turnover and repair. The aim of this study was to ...

Protons as Intercellular Messengers

Muscle contractions are driven by neurotransmitters released at neuromuscular junctions. In this issue, Beg et al. (2008) report that protons, in the absence of neurotransmitters and neurons, can stimulate muscle contractions involved in the defecation cycle of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Their results identify protons as a new intercellular messenger and suggest that proton-mediated inter...