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Pericytes: A newly recognized player in wound healing
Author(s) -
Bodnar Richard J.,
Satish Latha,
Yates Cecelia C.,
Wells Alan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
wound repair and regeneration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.847
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1524-475X
pISSN - 1067-1927
DOI - 10.1111/wrr.12415
Subject(s) - pericyte , wound healing , fibrosis , context (archaeology) , arteriogenesis , pathology , medicine , biology , angiogenesis , immunology , cancer research , endothelial stem cell , in vitro , paleontology , biochemistry
Pericytes have generally been considered in the context of stabilizing vessels, ensuring the blood barriers, and regulating the flow through capillaries. However, new reports suggest that pericytes may function at critical times to either drive healing with minimal scarring or, perversely, contribute to fibrosis and ongoing scar formation. Beneficially, pericytes probably drive much of the vascular involution that occurs during the transition from the regenerative to the resolution phases of healing. Pathologically, pericytes can assume a fibrotic phenotype and promote scarring. This perspective will discuss pericyte involvement in wound repair and the relationship pericytes form with the parenchymal cells of the skin. We will further evaluate the role pericytes may have in disease progression in relation to chronic wounds and fibrosis.