Theoretical and practical aspects of using fetal fibroblasts for skin regeneration

- Discusses the different repair mechanisms involved in wound healing of fibroblast at different developmental stages.
- Further expounded the different outcomes of wound repair in using adult and fetal fibroblasts in a clinical siting.
- Describe the current problems associated with the use of fetal fibroblasts in skin repair.
- Further prospects regarding the use of small molecules to improve the regenerative capacity of host cells in the wound as a more innovative and practical implementation for skin regeneration.

Cutaneous wounding in late-gestational fetal or postnatal humans results in scar formation without any skin appendages. Early or mid- gestational skin healing in humans is characterized by the absence of scaring in a process resembling regeneration. Tremendous cellular and molecular mechanisms contribute to this distinction, and fibroblasts play critical roles in scar or scarless wound healing. This review discussed the different repair mechanisms involved in wound healing of fibroblasts at different developmental stages and further confirmed that fetal fibroblast transplantation resulted in reduced scar healing in vivo. We also discussed the possible problem in fetal fibroblast transplantation for wound repair. We proposed the use of small molecules to improve the regenerative potential of repairing cells in the wound given that remodeling of the wound microenvironment into a regenerative microenvironment in adults might improve skin regeneration.