• Question: You cut yourself and it heals how does it heal? Does more skin grow over it?

    Asked by kimmy to Anne, Carolyn, Joe, Mariana, Nick on 25 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Carolyn McGettigan

      Carolyn McGettigan answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      Oh, I did this at university but have had to look it up again. The process of healing is a multistage process. Let’s assume we’re talking about a small cut. It begins with special cells in the blood called platelets gather to form a clot and stop the bleeding. Then there is an immune response where white blood cells kill any bacteria that might have got into the wound. This is called inflammation and this is why the skin goes red around the cut, and might even feel a bit hot. After this, all sorts of processes happen to generate connective tissue to close up the wound and then new skin grows. It’s a pretty amazing process but, of course we can only do so much healing on our own. For example, if the cut is deep and ruptures a major blood vessel, or if the infection is so severe that our immune system can’t totally kill it off, medical treatment would be needed.

    • Photo: Nick Bradshaw

      Nick Bradshaw answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      Its a while since I did this. The simplified answer is something like this:

      Initially, the blood in the cut clots to form a scab. Then fibres grow from the skin cells around the cut. These “stick” the two edges of he skin together. If the cut is an especially nasty one then these eventually form scar tissue. Evenutally the scab comes off (lovely topic of conversation isn’t it) to leave teh new skin underneath.

    • Photo: Joseph Devlin

      Joseph Devlin answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      Hi kimmy,

      Actually, it heals from the inside out. The initial cut bleeds and that washes out dirt and things that could cause an infection while delivering platelet cells that help to stem the flow and form a scab. Underneath the scab, skins starts to grow to replace the stuff lost in the cut. Once this is sufficiently knitted together, the scab can fall off revealing the new skin.

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