UNDERSTANDING AND CONTROLLING THE SCARRING RESPONSE - THE CONTRIBUTION OF HISTOLOGY AND MICROSCOPY

In response to injury, the body usually initiates a full and swift wou nd healing response resulting in reconstructed, repaired tissue. In ce rtain instances, due to a variety of factors, this may not happen, an example being chronic granulating venous leg ulcers. At the other extr eme, the wound may heal excessively, producing disabling hypertrophic scarring such as can occur following large, deep burn injuries. Our gr oup is interested in the surgical treatment of the eye disease glaucom a. As will be explained, the successful surgical treatment of this dis ease depends on a reduced scarring response at the end of wound healin g. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of our microscop ic and histological experimental work which has furthered our understa nding of tissue repair, particularly the scarring response and its pot ential modification for successful glaucoma surgery. (C) 1998 Wiley-Li ss, Inc.