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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Inflammation
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1429716

Aging, Senescence and cutaneous wound healing-A complex relationship

Provisionally accepted
Steven O'Reilly Steven O'Reilly 1,2*Ewa Markiewicz Ewa Markiewicz 2Olusola Idowu Olusola Idowu 2
  • 1 STipe Therapeutics, Aarhus, Denmark
  • 2 Other, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Cutaneous wound healing is a complex multi-step process that is highly controlled ensuring efficient repair to the damaged tissue and restore tissue architecture. Multiple cell types play a critical role in wound healing and perturbations in this can lead to non-healing wounds or scarring and fibrosis. Thus, the process is tightly regulated and controlled. Cellular senescence is defined as a irreversible cell cycle arrest and associated with various phenotypic changes, metabolic alterations and coupled to a secretory program. Its role in wound healing, at least in the acute setting, appears to help promote appropriate mechanisms leading to complete restoration of tissue architecture. Opposing this is the role of senescence in chronic wounds where this can lead to either chronic non-healing wounds or fibrosis. Given the two opposing outcomes of wound healing in either acute or chronic settings this has led to disparate views on the role of senescence in wound healing. This review aims to consolidate knowledge on the role of senescence and ageing in wound healing examining the nuances of the roles in the acute or chronic settings and attempts to evaluate the modulation of this to promote efficient wound healing.

    Keywords: skin wound, Wound Healing, senescence, SASP (senescence-associated secretory phenotype), Inflammation

    Received: 08 May 2024; Accepted: 19 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 O'Reilly, Markiewicz and Idowu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Steven O'Reilly, STipe Therapeutics, Aarhus, Denmark

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.