Sports Medicine Comic Strip- Tommy Gilcrest
Storyboard Text
- Oh son, don't be silly, the cut will heal itself
- Well there are actually a bunch of little superheroes inside your body that work to heal cuts. And it all starts with Hemostasis Man.
- Dad I got a cut on my arm! I can't live my entire life with a cut in my arm!
- What?? How!?!
- Imagine your cut as a river flowing water (blood) out to an ocean. Within minutes Hemostasis man will make sure the bleeding from your cut stops. He does this with the help of his platelet people who come into contact with collagen which results in activation and aggregation. The platelet people also help produce thrombin which produces fibrin and fibrinogen which strengthen the plug that hemostasis creates
- Platelet People
- After Homeostasis Man does his job, Master Inflammatory controls the next phase. Now I want you to imagine your wound as an overfilled cornfield. Master Inflammatory hates when his cornfield (the wound) is not clear, tidy, and clean. So in order to clean the wound Master Inflammatory calls up the ninja neutrophils who go into the wound and destroy all of the bacteria. Or in this case clear out all of the corn in the field. For the next day or two the ninjas call up their friends for help and the wound is full with neutrophils clearing bacteria
- Now, although the ninja neutrophils do an excellent job at clearing bacteria, there is a second line of defense called in during this second phase. They are the masked macrophages. The macrophages pick up where the ninjas left off and clear the rest of the debris, however, they have the phone number of someone very important that the ninjas dont. They are able to call up, or produce, important chemotactic and growth factors that take over in the next phase. But after the masked macrophages do their job, Master Inflammatory's corn field is left completely empty just how he likes it.
- Next up is Phase 3 and the man in charge of this phase is Professor Proliferative. He's in charge of making sure the wound is filled, contracted, and covered. Imagine your wound at this point as lake being frozen over by ice. The first thing the professor does is use tissue to fill the wound bed and forms new blood vessels known as pericytes. This would be like the lake starting to get cold underneath, but not yet frozen on top. Then the professor gets help from frankenstein fibroblasts who help contract and pull toward the center of the wound with all their strength. This would be the ice on the lake starting to connect but not completely frozen over. Finally the professor uses epithelial cells to jump around the wound until the wound is fully covered. This would be when the lake is fully frozen over.
- Finally the last phase, phase 4, is led by Maturation man. The main cell Maturation man uses is the fibroblast cell. In this phase collagen fibers reorganize and the tissue is remolded and strengthened. For this phase I want you to think of Maturation man taking this new tissue and having him work out in a gym so he can get strong and fully healed.
- Wow! who knew the wound healing process was so crazy! Thanks Dad!
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