皮肤能够保护人体不够外界伤害。当这道屏障受伤时，防御系统便会开始行动。然而，由于人类再生皮肤细胞的能力较差，因此伤后常会留疤。如今，研究人员借用蚌的愈合能力，制造了一种新型消疤物质。

　　皮肤组织被割伤时，它会迅速自我修复，用胶原填充伤口——这种蛋白质是普通皮肤组织的关键成分。但在修复过程中，胶原纤维会形成疤痕，而不会排列为整齐的交织模式。各种消疤方法收效甚微。

　　粘合剂可以帮助伤口愈合，但这并不适用于所有伤口，且可能引起过敏。如果伤口需要保持湿润，那么粘合剂就无法起效。此外，饰胶蛋白聚糖也可以帮助胶原形成更整齐的结构。但这种东西很贵，而且很难大批量生产。

　　如今，韩国研究人员对蚌产生了兴趣。这种生物能够在海浪的猛击中紧紧粘住岩石，而医用胶水需要在湿润环境中起效。于是，研究人员将蚌的粘附蛋白和一种胶原肽结合起来，发明出了一种新型伤疤胶水。

　　研究人员在老鼠身上进行试验，将胶水涂在其伤口上(伤口很深、宽8毫米)，并用塑料盖住，使愈合环境保持湿润。控制组的老鼠只用塑料盖住伤口，没有涂抹新型胶水。

　　结果发现，仅需10天时间就能看出新型胶水的效果。第11天时，99%的伤口已经愈合;第28天时，伤口已完全恢复，且几乎不留疤痕。控制组老鼠则留下了明显的紫色疤痕，且愈合时间相对较长。更令人惊喜的是，实验组老鼠的伤口上长出了新皮肤——拥有普通皮肤而非伤疤的所有特征，如毛囊和血管。

　　不过，老鼠皮肤比较松弛，人类皮肤比较紧致。老鼠的伤口愈合能力本就比人类强，它们通常更少留疤。接下来，研究人员打算对猪皮肤进行测试。猪的皮肤结构和人类较为相似。

　　本文由煎蛋网 蛋花 译自sciencealert，版权归属煎蛋网，如需转载，请注明出处。

　　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.