"Engineering" the wound-healing process

Our group is studying the modulation of fibroblast behavior by various wound-healing agents. 3-D collagen gels were used as an in vitro wound model to study human dermal fibroblast behavior. In this article, we hypothesize that efficient contraction of the in vitro wound model is associated with gap junction (GJ) formation between cells and, conversely, that inhibition of the in vitro wound-model contraction is associated with inhibition of GJ between cells. We used chitosan-collagen blends as the in vitro wound model, investigating the contractile behavior of fibroblasts and the effect of chitosan on wound contraction and GJ formation.