Re: Q on scar tissue? Do unborn babies scar?

From: Anthony Campbell (me_at_privacy.net)
Date: 08/24/04 

Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 15:18:51 +0000 (UTC)

On 2004-08-22, J Moore <anthrosciguy@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> The degree to which scarring occurs also varies quite a lot from individual
> to individual, and from one age to another. For instance, I used to not get
> permanent scars at all, despite cuts, scrapes, some rather severe (like the
> fall from a motorcycle onto a rough asphalt road that scraped off a large
> (maybe 3" by 6") area of skin on my right thigh -- it can't be seen now at
> all, and neither can the others. OTOH, I had a friend who scarred easily --
> interestingly, possibly related, was the fact that he wasn't susceptible to
> sunburn at all while I was very susceptible). But I also found that
> starting sometime in my late 40s cuts and scrapes would produce permanent
> scars for me. So, beware of absolute statements about scarring, I guess. :)
> --
> JMoore
>

The reason that your scrape is no longer visible is probably that this
was not a full-thickness skin loss. If the dermis was still there it
would be able to regenerate the epidermis with no scarring. A similar
state of affairs occurs with burns of various depths.

As for age differences, this may be simply a question of time. There is
a tendency for scars to fade over time, but this can take many years.

Anthony 

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