Scars have been a persistent problem for people healing from injuries and surgery for all of human existence. But that might be about to change. New research from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Irvine found a way to heal wounds with regular skin instead of scar tissue.

Scar tissue is made of different cells than regular skin. Myofibroblasts are the most common type of cells present, and are thought to help cause scar formation. There are also no fat cells or hair follicles in scar tissue, another reason scars look different from normal skin.

Scientists already knew how to stimulate the growth of hair follicles in scar tissue, and had successfully done so in mice. But their new study showed something surprising--the presence of hair follicles caused the skin to release Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP). This protein signaled the surrounding cells to turn from myofibroblasts into adipocytes, the fat cells that are present in normal skin. This means that the mice and lab grown human skin samples didn't develop scar tissue. In the past, scientists didn't think that myofibroblasts could become any other type of cell.

"The secret is to regenerate hair follicles first," study leader Dr. George Cotsarelis of University of Pennsylvania told Penn Medicine News. "After that, the fat will regenerate in response to the signals from those follicles."

"The findings show we have a window of opportunity after wounding to influence the tissue to regenerate rather than scar," said the study's lead author, Maksim Plikus, an assistant professor of Developmental and Cell Biology at the University of California, Irvine.

These results could have a huge impact on the future of scar therapy, perhaps even a future without scars and the suffering they bring to those who live with them.

Source: Science via New Atlas