為什么嘴里的傷口好的快？

美國國立衛(wèi)生研究院的研究結(jié)果，已經(jīng)找出了口腔傷口能夠快速愈合的原因。這項研究的結(jié)果還有可能幫助我們讓身體的其它部分更快地愈合。

Hoping to zero in on why the mouth heals much faster than other body parts, such as the skin, the researchers recruited 30 healthy, non-smoking volunteers for a simple experiment. They created a pair of three-millimeter-wide wounds in each subject: One on the inner cheek of the mouth and one on the arm. Then they tracked how these wounds healed over the next six days, collecting tissue samples before and after the injury. Finally, they studied the molecular profiles of these samples.

研究人員招募了30名健康的不抽煙的志愿者，在他們的身上制造了兩個3毫米寬的傷口：一個在口腔內(nèi)，另一個在手臂上。在接下來的六天之內(nèi)，他們記錄了這些傷口是如何愈合的，并且收集了受傷前后的組織樣本。最后，通過研究這些樣本的分子譜，研究人員得出了結(jié)論。

The direct comparison between skin and mouth wounds in the same person allowed the team to uncover “novel ‘molecular signatures’ that correspond to distinct stages of oral mucosa and skin during healing,” lead author Maria Morasso, chief scientist at the NIH’s Laboratory of Skin Biology, told Gizmodo via email.

美國國立衛(wèi)生研究院皮膚生理實驗室首席科學(xué)家Maria Morasso表示，研究團隊比較了同一個人皮膚和口腔傷口的愈合過程，從而發(fā)現(xiàn)了新的“分子特性”，這些特性分別在傷口愈合的不同階段發(fā)揮作用。

Almost every individual cell in our bodies has the same genetic code underlying it. But different types of cells carry different instructions on how these genes should be expressed. In mouth cells, the team found, their instructions told them to be ready to heal at any moment’s notice. These cells, unlike the arm skin cells, were already expressing patterns of genes that encourage wound repair, even before the injury had occurred. That allowed the cells to speed up the healing process, such as by limiting inflammation.

我們身體的每個細(xì)胞中都含有相同的遺傳密碼，但是不同的細(xì)胞攜帶著不同的表達(dá)指令，使得細(xì)胞們最終特征各異。研究團隊發(fā)現(xiàn)，口腔細(xì)胞時刻準(zhǔn)備著愈合，它們甚至在受到傷害之前就已經(jīng)表達(dá)出了促進傷口修復(fù)的特性，這一點是手臂上的皮膚細(xì)胞所不具備的。口腔細(xì)胞所表達(dá)出來的這種性狀，能夠通過限制炎癥的產(chǎn)生從而加速愈合的過程。

“The ‘priming’ of the oral cavity allows the cells to respond very rapidly to the wound and trigger a rapid closure, while the cells in the skin must first activate these mechanisms to be able to effectively close the wound,” Morasso explained. “This might be a reason why skin wounds heal slower when compared with the oral wounds.”

口腔細(xì)胞的未雨綢繆，使得一旦它們受到傷害，能夠迅速作出反應(yīng)并且開始愈合過程。然而，皮膚中的細(xì)胞要先激活某些機制才能開始修復(fù)傷口。Morasso認(rèn)為這是造成皮膚傷口愈合得比口腔慢的根本原因。

The team then took things one step further. They isolated one of the key proteins that relays these priming instructions, called SOX2, and bred mice to have higher-than-normal levels of SOX2 expressed in their skin cells. When the skin of these mice was hurt, it then healed quicker than usual.

研究團隊所得到的結(jié)果遠(yuǎn)不僅僅是這些。他們找到了一種關(guān)鍵的蛋白質(zhì)——SOX2，就是這種蛋白質(zhì)傳遞出提前準(zhǔn)備愈合的指令。研究人員培育出了一種小白鼠，它們皮膚細(xì)胞中的SOX2含量比正常小鼠要高，在這種小白鼠受到傷害之后，傷口會比正常小鼠恢復(fù)得更快。

The animal results aren’t meant to be anything more than a proof of concept. But Morasso says this and future studies could help us figure out how to make our wounds heal more quickly, as well as how to treat wounds that seemingly can’t heal at all, a problem that’s especially common with conditions like late-stage diabetes.

Morasso表示，這項研究或許能幫助我們在未來找到讓傷口愈合得更快的方法，甚至是促進一些難以愈合的傷口恢復(fù)，例如晚期糖尿病人身上的傷口。