Tissues must quickly recognize injury to respond to the rapid pace of microbial growth. In
skin, dermal microvascular endothelial cells must also react to danger signals from the
surrounding tissue and immediately participate by initiating the wound repair process.
Components of the extracellular matrix such as hyaluronan are rapidly broken down into
smaller molecular weight oligosaccharides in a wound, and these can activate a variety of
biological processes. This study set out to determine if hyaluronan fragments released …