Healing and Repair of Wounds and Bones

In the field of forensic medicine, it is often of paramount importance to estimate accurately the time at which an injury was inflicted. This chapter illustrates what a forensic histopathologist needs to know in order to assess wound age. Knowledge of wound healing (WH) processes and of cellular–extracellular matrix (ECM) mediators is required to estimate wound age. In this chapter, in which studies conducted over the last decade are reviewed, the WH features that are most relevant to forensic studies and the most reliable markers of wound age assessment are described. Lastly, the new perspectives provided by omics sciences that pave the way for future interdisciplinary research are discussed.