Fig. 2.

Scarless versus scarring healing. Early gestation fetal wound repair represents a paradigm for regenerative/scarless healing. Fetal skin (left) exhibits minimal inflammation following wounding (middle row left) and heals in a scarless fashion by regenerating normal skin; fetal fibroblasts produce ECM indistinguishable from that of unwounded skin (bottom row left). Relative to fetal skin, adult skin (right) exhibits markedly increased inflammation upon wounding (middle row right). In response to injury, postnatal fibroblasts produce scar tissue distinguished by dense, fibrotic ECM and a grossly raised appearance (bottom row right).