Advances in Medical Imaging for Wound Repair and Regenerative Medicine

Adult mammalian wounds commonly heal through the process of repair and leave a permanent mark—the scar. Scars typically jeopardize normal organ function and restrict full function restoration—a process called regeneration. Another major challenge in wound management is chronic wounds because of infection or metabolic diseases like diabetes. In severe cases, chronic wounds do not heal easily and can even often lead to amputations. To clinically restore and assess wounds for faster healing with minimum scarring and to evaluate the performance of therapeutic candidates, visualizing the wounds is very crucial. Imaging methods spanning a range of observable fields, depths of penetration, and resolutions are presented here that play a key role in propelling the field of wound healing and regenerative medicine. The chapter aims to have an overview of the imaging methods from macroscopic to molecular scales and enables readers to understand the key parameters and limitations that make them an ideal choice in solving a clinical problem.