Abstract

The repair of wounds is one of the most complex biological processes that occur during human life. After an injury, multiple biological pathways immediately become activated and are synchronized to respond. In human adults, the wound repair process commonly leads to a non-functioning mass of fibrotic tissue known as a scar. By contrast, early in gestation, injured fetal tissues can be completely recreated, without fibrosis, in a process resembling regeneration. Some organisms, however, retain the ability to regenerate tissue throughout adult life. Knowledge gained from studying such organisms might help to unlock latent regenerative pathways in humans, which would change medical practice as much as the introduction of antibiotics did in the twentieth century.

1. Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, 257 Campus Drive, Stanford, California 94305-5148, USA.
2. Institute of Cell Biology, Department of Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Schafmattstrasse 18, HPM D42, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
3. Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Chirurgie Éxperimentale, Pavillon 4, CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
4. École Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne, School of Life Sciences/LDCS, Station 15, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

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