The Effect of Bacteria on Epidermal Wound Healing

Abstract

Epidermal wound healing is a complex process that repairs injured tissue. The complexity of this process increases when bacteria are present in a wound; the bacteria interaction determines whether infection sets in. Because of underlying physiological problems infected wounds do not follow the normal healing pattern. In this paper we present a mathematical model of the healing of both infected and uninfected wounds. At the core of our model is an account of the initiation of angiogenesis by macrophage-derived growth factors. We express the model as a system of reaction-diffusion equations, and we present results of computations for a version of the model with one spatial dimension.