Scar Appearance

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I have explained in past blogs that our organs, including skin, have lost the ability to regenerate due to the specificity and complexity of  our organ cells. I mentioned how scars (which is our only form of healing using collagen) mature from a red, hard, raised appearance to a mature more normal color, soft, flat state. Why the initial scar appearance and why the change?

Scar is living tissue that is our attempt to heal areas of injury. Special cells with different  jobs arrive at the site and begin the process of cleaning up and rebuilding tissue. Extra blood vessels are generated to help deliver the necessary cells to the area. Think of the task as the same process that a building lot undergoes. Different trucks arrive from many directions on the lot. Extra inroads exist as the lot develops. Eventually when the project is completed, there is only one driveway on the lot.

When you watch a scar change on your own body, you are witnessing the amazing complex process of   automatically coordinated wound healing without a general contractor!