Figure 3.

Numerical results for the non-dimensionalized system in the case of normal wound healing for the choice of parameters listed in table 1. (a) The spatial distribution of keratinocytes is shown at t = 8.33 days post-injury. We observe that keratinocytes have migrated into the wound space, reproducing the invasive ‘tongue’ observed in figure 1. Further, the distributions of (b) keratinocytes and (c) ECM for the same parameter values at t = 18.5 days post-injury are shown. For this later time, keratinocytes are mainly confined to the upper (epidermal) region of the wound, resulting in an increased concentration of interleukin-1 and, consequently, a reduced amount of ECM in this region. These results are consistent with the expected behaviour of normal wounds, in which collagen is deposited in the dermal regions by fibroblasts, and the previously discussed experimental observation that keratinocytes prevent the excess production of collagen [6,10].