Collagen Organization Critical Role in Wound Contraction

Background: Open wound closure by wound contraction produces a healed defect made up mostly of dermis. Generating thicker collagen fibers condenses granulation tissue, which pulls surrounding skin into the defect. The Problem: What is the mechanism for open wound contraction? Is it through the generation of contractile force using sustained myosin ATPase, thus causing cell contraction or by rapid myosin ATPase that condenses collagen fibrils into fibers? Basic/Clinical Science Addressed: The mechanism for wound contraction is not often debated after the discovery of the myofibroblast. Myofibroblasts are the major cell phenotype in maturing granulation tissue. It is concluded, not quite accurately, that myofibroblasts are responsible for wound contraction. As wound contraction progresses, polarized light microscopy reveals birefringence patterns associated with ever-increasing thickening of collagen fibers. Collagen fibers thicken by eliminating water between fibrils. Wound contraction requires collagen synthesis and granulation tissue compaction. Both myofibroblasts and fibroblasts synthesize collagen, but fibroblasts, not myofibroblasts, compact collagen. Free-floating fibroblast-populated collagen lattices (FPCL) contract by rapid myosin ATPase, thus resulting in thicker collagen fibers by elongated fibroblasts. The release of an attached FPCL, using sustained myosin ATPase, produces rapid lattice contraction, now populated with contracted myofibroblasts in the absence of thick collagen fibers. Discussion: In vivo and in vitro studies show that rapid myosin ATPase is the motor for wound contraction. Myofibroblasts maintain steady mechanotension through sustained myosin ATPase, which generates cell contraction forces that fail to produce thicker collagen fibers. The hypothesis is that cytoplasmic microfilaments pull collagen fibrils over the fibroblast's plasma membrane surface, bringing collagen fibrils in closer contact with one another. The self-assembly nature of collagen fixes collagen fibrils in regular arrays generating thicker collagen fibers. Conclusion: Wound contraction progresses through fibroblasts generating thicker collagen fibers, using tractional forces; rather than by myofibroblasts utilizing cell contraction forces.