Preclinical models for wound-healing studies

Cutaneous wound healing is an evolutionarily conserved and highly complex process that restores the cutaneous barrier after injury. Experimental wound-healing models provide great advantages to study mechanisms that control this intricate process. In addition, they provide a useful platform to evaluate novel therapies with the goal of translation to patient care. In vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo assays are all very useful for preclinical studies, and each has its own unique set of advantages. However, these models also come with their own distinct limitations particularly as they relate to translatability to clinical practice. This is especially true for chronic wounds, for which no optimal preclinical model exists. Chronic wounds result from a composite dysregulation of multiple local and systemic processes that contribute to the wound-healing process, including underlying conditions such as vascular disease, diabetes, and aging that are difficult to replicate in any given model. Here, we describe the most current in vitro and in vivo models for wound-healing studies with a focus on their advantages and disadvantages and recent advances that are promising for the future of wound-healing research.