Structural mechanics modeling reveals stress-adaptive features of cutaneous scars
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Structural mechanics modeling reveals stress‑adaptive features of cutaneous scars Biswajoy Ghosh1 · Mousumi Mandal1 · Pabitra Mitra2 · Jyotirmoy Chatterjee1 Received: 25 May 2020 / Accepted: 1 September 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The scar is a predominant outcome of adult mammalian wound healing despite being associated with partial function loss. Here in this paper, we have described the structure of a full-thickness normal scar as a “di-fork” with dual biomechanical compartments using in vivo and ex vivo experiments. We used structural mechanics simulations to model the deformation fields computationally and stress distribution in the scar in response to external forces. Despite its loss of tissue components, we have found that the scar has stress-adaptive features that cushion the underlying tissues from external mechanical impacts. Thus, this new finding can motivate research to understand the biomechanical advantages of a scar in maintaining the primary function of the skin, i.e., mechanical barrier despite permanent loss of some tissues and specialized functions. Keywords Scar · Wound healing · Biomechanics · Skin · Stress-adaptive
1 Introduction Wound healing predominantly converges into the formation of a fibrotic mass of tissue called scar (Gurtner et al. 2008). In the skin, scars are typically not formed if the wounds are shallow, i.e., partial-thickness wounds that include the epidermis and dermis layers of skin (Fig. 1). Scars are more profound when the wounds are of full thickness, i.e., besides the skin epidermis and dermis, they include deeper sub-cutaneous structures like the fat and muscle tissues. Although scar tissue formation is a mark of completed wound healing, it is functionally compromised due to the lack of one or several specialized tissues (Stroncek and Reichert 2008). Therefore, regenerative medicine research has a significant focus on scarless to regenerative wound healing aiming at the complete structural and functional restoration of the injured tissue (Moore et al. 2018). The skin primarily functions as a protective barrier from external assaults. Besides this, the skin has several other functions including touch sensation (Girard et al. 2017), * Biswajoy Ghosh [email protected] 1
School of Medical Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India
2
thermoregulation (Romanovsky 2014), excretion (Hotchkiss 1992), preventing the entry of germs into the body (Harris et al. 2019), etc. The fat and muscle layers of the skin (hypodermis) provide structural support and shock buffering (Hendriks et al. 2010). In the skin, full-thickness excision wounds heal via the formation of scar tissue that lacks the sweat and oil glands and, in several cases, fat and muscle tissues altogether (atrophic scars) (Fabbrocini et al. 2010). This jeopardizes several of the specialized functions of the skin. Scars in the skin can
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