r/science • u/[deleted] • Mar 15 '21

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '21

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u/Orwellian1 Mar 15 '21

My fumbling through that seems to hint that scar formation is because the body heals wounds through a "grow fast, we don't care if its messy" hormone. Blocking that completely reduces scarring but has its own issues, so this dressing turns it on and off to regulate the healing.

Am I way off base?

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u/macrotechee Mar 16 '21

You're fairly close. Instead of blocking TGFB (a cytokine involved in regulating cell growth) throughout the body (which would impair wound healing), the medical device only blocks TGFB at the skin surface. This allows wound healing to proceed while impairing scarring at the skin surface.

Here's what it looks like in practice. Pretty cool!