Skin Healing Process by Design

Skin Healing Process by Design

You get a cut or scrape on your skin, and what happens? Except for applying antibiotic or a bandage, you probably think little of it. It heals, and life goes on. But the skin healing process is something we should not take for granted.

Our bodies perform a complex healing process for even a small wound. Granulation tissue consists of new connective tissue and microscopic blood vessels. Your body generates granulation tissue from the base of the wound growing until it closes the wound. It may be light red to dark pink because of the new blood capillaries, and it’s usually moist and bumpy, or “granular.”

Cells surrounding the wound secrete molecules called extracellular matrix (ECM) to provide structural support. Cells called fibroblasts secrete collagen, the main structural protein of connective tissue. Collagen is resistant to bacteria, so it helps prevent infection while promoting healing. Fibroblasts are stem cells, meaning that they can morph into various kinds of cells as needed for the part of the body that’s being healed.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a protein that stimulates cell growth. It’s found in blood plasma, and blood is supplied to the new tissue through the new capillaries. An interesting sidenote is that EGF is also found in the saliva of all mammals. When an animal licks its wounds, it’s not just cleaning the area, it’s also helping to promote the healing of the wound.

This is a greatly oversimplied explanation of the skin healing process, but it shows a glimpse of a very complex system that we can’t believe was an accident. Even before the healing begins, another complex process causes the blood to clot. We think that the ability of our bodies to heal is another example engineering design by the Master Designer.

— Roland Earnst © 2020

New Human Organ Discovery

There Is a New Human Organ Discovery
With all that science knows about the human body, it is truly amazing that they have just made a new human organ discovery. Scientists at the New York University Langone School of Medicine have announced the discovery of a previously unknown organ in the human body. They gave it the name “interstitium.”

The human body is about 60% water, most of which is in the cells. The interstitium is a network of fluid-filled spaces, and it holds about 20% of all the fluid in the human body. The reason this organ wasn’t detected earlier is that researchers treat and dehydrate the tissue samples before they put them under a microscope. That causes the interstitium to collapse. Until now researchers saw the interstitium as a dense wall of the protein collagen. They now realize that it is not a wall but an “open, fluid-filled highway” supported by a lattice of collagen.

The interstitium organ plays a major role in the immune system. Interstitial fluid is the source of lymph, which sends out white blood cells to fight infection. The interstitium’s role in the body’s battle against infection is significant, and this discovery may change how some difficult infections are treated.

Medical researchers discovered the interstitium by using a new imaging technique called probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) to examine living tissue. They found interstitium tissue under the surface of the skin, in the lining of the digestive tract and lungs, and surrounding the muscles. This new human organ discovery helps explain how cancer cells spread throughout the body.

We still have much to learn about the design and function of our bodies, but we see God’s wisdom and the complexity of His creation as we grow in our understanding of how our bodies work. David said it best in Psalms 139:14, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are your works God, and my soul knows that very well.”
–John N. Clayton and Roland Earnst © 2018