Picking at Scabs

Seeing blood after injury can be alarming. But bleeding is the start of a healing process that’s more than meets the eye. This blood clot, or thrombus, fills the hole left by a puncture wound. It protects against infection and grows crusty over time – maybe into a scab that looks ripe for the picking. But here scientists are looking at what’s going on underneath. A kind of 3D scanning electron microscopy reveals the thrombus builds on a foundation of blood platelets outside of a wound (highlighted in green) which climb into the vessel (blue) as tiny 'pillars'. Eventually they form a vaulted structure a bit like a gazebo, which supports a 'roof' of looser platelets (yellow) inside the vessel. These intricate structures may help to coordinate vital chemical signals during healing. While researchers investigate the effects of drugs and lifestyle on this bloody architecture – let’s leave those scabs alone!

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Video from work by Sung Rhee and Irina D. Pokrovskaya, and colleagues
• Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Communications Biology, September 2021