Following an injury, most solid tissues in the adult exhibit a rapid-onset response designed
to temporarily seal the wound site, prevent infections from developing, and mobilize the
cellular elements responsible for tissue restoration. Under optimal circumstances, given a
wound of limited amplitude, blood clotting is locally initiated within seconds, an inflammatory
response elaborat-ed within minutes, and a burst of tissue formation occurs over a period of
days (Fig. 1). In the weeks following the initial resolution of the wound, the newly formed …