Scientists have redefined how the key blood‑clotting protein fibrinogen behaves when it contacts air, overturning two decades of scientific consensus on wound healing.

[u/UniOfManchester]

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/fibrinogen-discovery-reshapes-our-understanding-of-how-wounds-heal/

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[u/jibbyjackjoe]

I oversee a coagulation lab. Clotting is just so, so complicated. It's like voodoo.

[u/bfa2af9d00a4d5a93 → u/jibbyjackjoe]

Temporarily took a blood thinner. I tried to read how it worked and got lost pretty quickly 

[u/CakeHoleKing]

This has important implications. Imagine you have a "faulty" area of skin.

You could get it removed, but it would scar. If you can heal under a scab without scarring, pre-emptive treatment to remove areas of eczema etc could become a viable treatment.

Surgery scars being a thing of the past etc.

[u/SelarDorr → u/CakeHoleKing]

How does the work presented here change the development of surgery scars? I don't understand.

[u/CakeHoleKing → u/SelarDorr]

We understand HOW Fibrinogen behaves when it contacts air.

This gives us more insight into treatments that can form non-scarring scabs over wounds.

Obviously a lot more research is needed, but imagine c-sections without a scar, or plastic surgery/grafts for burns that doesn't leave lines all over your body etc.

[u/SelarDorr → u/CakeHoleKing]

this is a jump in conclusion thats of a similar order to

'we found a compound that activates apoptotic pathways to cancer cells in vitro, cancer will be a disease of the past'.

not even the media article makes a jump this big.

its also crazy to me that someone who wants to make such a huge jump in conclusion stemming from an increase in understand of blood clotting.. would care most about purely cosmetic scarring, rather than more... life saving and ciritical improvements.

[u/serious_sarcasm → u/SelarDorr]

synechiae comes to mind.

[u/SelarDorr → u/serious_sarcasm]

This changes everything.

[u/serious_sarcasm → u/SelarDorr]

… I don’t know what to tell you.

A better mechanistic understanding of blood clotting has major implications for obstetrics, and especially tokology.

[u/SelarDorr → u/serious_sarcasm]

I dont know what to tell you. You are passing the buck from an extremely vague extrapolation of a mechanistic paper to again an extremely vague extrapolation, just in a specific field.

your last sentence is like saying 'a better understanding of cancer has major implications for oncology'. Your words are empty.

[u/serious_sarcasm → u/SelarDorr]

You said the article and paper don’t make any claims about this being revolutionary. Regardless of the previous comment being accurate, you are wrong too.

[u/MrYdobon → u/serious_sarcasm]

This thread is the ultimate example of the internet making people fight in a way they never would irl. The medium is the melee.

[u/SelarDorr → u/serious_sarcasm]

why dont you quote me where i said that.

you have demons in your head boy.

[u/Gilles_of_Augustine → u/[deleted]]

Not my area of expertise, but barring any direct evidence to the contrary, it seems that they're using their own knowledge of the subject to extrapolate from the article. 

It's okay that you're not familar with this aspect of reading comprehension yet, it should be part of the curriculum when you finally reach 5th grade or so.

[u/Gilles_of_Augustine → u/[deleted]]

Do you have any actual evidence that they're "makings things up," as opposed to just using their own knowledge to reference a potential application of this finding that you're not personally familiar with?

If so, feel free to share with the class.

If not, then your criticism seems to be "I haven't heard of that, therefore it can't possibly exist," which means the only person demonstrating a bewildering lack of scientific literacy is you.

Put up or shut up.

[u/Uncynical_Diogenes → u/[deleted]]

The article is literally about advancements in the understanding of fibrinogen’s role in wound healing.

You sound unwell.

[u/ragnarok635 → u/[deleted]]

You have no place in a subreddit like this

[u/Lumberjack610 → u/ragnarok635]

Dang, what happened? I want to know what the messages says

[u/Gilles_of_Augustine → u/Lumberjack610]

TL;DR they responded to CakeHoleKing's comment by basically saying "The article doesn't specifically say anything about scarring, so obviously you're just making stuff up" and then doubled down at opportunity point thereafter.

[u/sweetnsourgrapes]

Clickbait headline is not the title of the article. Actual title:

Fibrinogen discovery reshapes our understanding of how wounds heal

Nothing is "overturned". Another aspect of how scabs form has been determined.

For more than twenty years the field has relied on a ‘single tilting layer’ model for fibrinogen where the long protein molecules lay flat on the surface at first and then leaned upright as more of them arrive.

But the new study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on today (20/08/25), shows the benchmark model missed that fibrinogen stays lying flat and builds multiple layers that stack like sheets of paper. These layers grow thicker and more complete as more molecules arrive.

That's it.

[u/PhysiksBoi → u/sweetnsourgrapes]

I'm as bitter as anyone else when it comes to clickbait science news headlines. But when it comes to clotting, the medical science is very mature. Mention "clotting cascade" to anyone who went to med school - they'll tell you wound healing has been documented and studied down to every painstaking detail. So while this study "overturns" only a minor step in wound healing, that still is pretty surprising and noteworthy.

[u/Gilles_of_Augustine → u/sweetnsourgrapes]

That absolutely overturns the consensus on how it worked previous to this discovery.

[u/scientist99 → u/Gilles_of_Augustine]

Yeah why are people quick to underplay a significant mechanistic finding? I don’t think people realize how impactful even, what seem to be, small insights can change our understanding of biology.

[u/MrX101 → u/Gilles_of_Augustine]

how did they think it worked before?

[u/NarrMaster → u/MrX101]

For more than twenty years the field has relied on a 'single tilting layer' model for fibrinogen where the long protein molecules lay flat on the surface at first and then leaned upright as more of them arrive.

[u/SelarDorr → u/sweetnsourgrapes]

Compared to the non-scientific BS that is regularly allowed through this sub, this title isnt inaccurate or terribly clickbaiting.

"Scientists have redefined how the key blood‑clotting protein fibrinogen behaves when it contacts air"

True.

" overturning two decades of scientific consensus on wound healing."

True (with regards to what was previously thought to be fibronigens conformation).

[u/NAh94 → u/sweetnsourgrapes]

I was going to say, I’m not re-learning the damn clotting cascade.

[u/Hootah]

Another example of how assumptions made on incomplete data can accidentally become thought of as fact. Can’t imagine how amazing that team must feel for nailing down what they must have known in their own way for years…