Collagen remodelling by fibroblasts in wound repair. Preliminary observations

Abstract Connective tissue remodelling has been studied at the fine structural level at the periphery of skin wounds repairing by both first and second intention. The periphery of such wounds was studied as it was predicted that not only would remodelling between old and new connective tissue be taking place, but that the fibroblast would be involved. Excisional and incisional wounds were made in the skin of adult mice and biopsied 14 days later. Our results showed that numerous fibroblasts in the junctional zone between old and new connective tissue exhibited intracellular collagen within vesicles. These findings indicate that the fibroblast is capable of phagocytosing and degrading collagen and has a fundamental role to play in connective tissue remodelling.