皮膚能夠保護人體不夠外界傷害。當這道屏障受傷時，防御系統便會開始行動。然而，由于人類再生皮膚細胞的能力較差，因此傷后常會留疤。如今，研究人員借用蚌的愈合能力，制造了一種新型消疤物質。

　　皮膚組織被割傷時，它會迅速自我修復，用膠原填充傷口——這種蛋白質是普通皮膚組織的關鍵成分。但在修復過程中，膠原纖維會形成疤痕，而不會排列為整齊的交織模式。各種消疤方法收效甚微。

　　粘合劑可以幫助傷口愈合，但這并不適用于所有傷口，且可能引起過敏。如果傷口需要保持濕潤，那么粘合劑就無法起效。此外，飾膠蛋白聚糖也可以幫助膠原形成更整齊的結構。但這種東西很貴，而且很難大批量生產。

　　如今，韓國研究人員對蚌產生了興趣。這種生物能夠在海浪的猛擊中緊緊粘住巖石，而醫用膠水需要在濕潤環境中起效。于是，研究人員將蚌的粘附蛋白和一種膠原肽結合起來，發明出了一種新型傷疤膠水。

　　研究人員在老鼠身上進行試驗，將膠水涂在其傷口上(傷口很深、寬8毫米)，并用塑料蓋住，使愈合環境保持濕潤。控制組的老鼠只用塑料蓋住傷口，沒有涂抹新型膠水。

　　結果發現，僅需10天時間就能看出新型膠水的效果。第11天時，99%的傷口已經愈合;第28天時，傷口已完全恢復，且幾乎不留疤痕。控制組老鼠則留下了明顯的紫色疤痕，且愈合時間相對較長。更令人驚喜的是，實驗組老鼠的傷口上長出了新皮膚——擁有普通皮膚而非傷疤的所有特征，如毛囊和血管。

　　不過，老鼠皮膚比較松弛，人類皮膚比較緊致。老鼠的傷口愈合能力本就比人類強，它們通常更少留疤。接下來，研究人員打算對豬皮膚進行測試。豬的皮膚結構和人類較為相似。

　　本文由煎蛋網 蛋花 譯自sciencealert，版權歸屬煎蛋網，如需轉載，請注明出處。

　　原文如下：

　　Our skin is pretty good at protecting the squishy human body from external danger, so the moment that barrier is compromised with a wound or a cut, a defence system has to kick into action.

　　But that action often results in scar tissue, since we're not really capable ofregenerating skin cells to their previous condition. Doctors already use various imperfect solutions to try and minimise scarring, but now researchers have come up with a new substance that borrows its healing power from mussels.

　　When skin tissue is damaged by a deep cut, it repairs itself by quickly filling up the wound with collagen.

　　This protein is a key ingredient for normal skin tissue, but when it's growing to cover a wound, the collagen fibres form a scar because they don't arrange themselves in the same neat cross-weave pattern as they do in skin.

　　Doctors can do their best to minimise scar tissue from forming, but most of the time there's little they can do to prevent a scar altogether.

　　One option to help a wound heal better is to use an adhesive, based on chemicals similar to those found in Super Glue. But not all wounds can be glued shut, chemically-derived skin glue can cause irritation, and it often doesn't work when you need to keep the wound from drying out.

　　There's also a substance called decorin, which helps organise collagen into a neater structure, but it's expensive stuff, and tricky to produce in large-enough quantities for medical use.

　　A team of Korean researchers got interested in mussel-based glue because these bivalves have an amazing ability to stick to rocks battered by ocean waves, and surgical glue needs to work well in a wet environment.

　　Inspired by the mechanisms that decorin uses to target collagen in the skin, scientists from Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea have invented a new scar glue from mussel adhesive protein, combining it with a peptide that binds to collagen.

　　The researchers tested their new glue on rats, spreading it on deep, 8-millimetre-wide (0.3 inch) wounds, and covering them with plastic to keep the healing environment moist. For comparison, a control group of rats only got plastic covering without the new glue.

　　The effects of the mussel-based substance were visible in just 10 days. For the test rats, their wounds were 99 percent closed up by day 11, and were fully recovered with very little scarring by day 28.

　　Meanwhile the control rats were left with visible purple scars, and the healing took longer.

　　What's even more impressive is that the rats who received the glue treatment had essentially grown new skin on their wounds, with all the usual features you get in skin but not in scars, such as hair follicles and blood vessels.

　　The researchers note that was possible because the glue is better at regulating collagen fibre growth as opposed to skin that's left to its own devices to repair itself.

　　But as with any medical concept that's tested on rats, it will be a while before we may see the same amazing results in people, if we do at all.

　　"Rats have loose skin, whereas we have tight skin, and they tend to heal better and have less scarring than we do," University of South Australia tissue repair expert Allison Cowin, who wasn't involved in the study, told New Scientist.

　　As the next step, the researchers plan to test the mussel glue on pig skin, which is more similar in structure to ours.

　　For now, we do have some treatments that can minimise scars, such as laser therapy or chemical peels. But the mussel gloop sure looks promising, and we'll be keeping an eye out for future tests.

　　The study is due to be published in Biomaterials.