Wound healing is a complex process, in which a sequence of interrelated phases contribute to a reduction in wound size. For diabetic patients, many of these processes are compromised, so that wound healing slows down. We present a simple ordinary differential equation model for wound healing in which attention focusses on the dominant processes that contribute to closure of a full thickness wound: proliferation and migration of cells in the epidermis; tissue growth in the dermis; and contraction of the dermal tissue. The model is easily comparable with the current level of experimental data, typically given by a time series of averaged wound areas. We use the model to distinguish between growth and contraction in healing, quantities which are not easily measured experimentally. By fitting the model to experimental data we find that the major difference between normal and diabetic healing is a marked reduction in the rate of dermal tissue growth for diabetic patients.

wound healing; diabetes; ordinary differential equations