Hyaluronan weakens healed skin

This proposed mechanism asks why healed skin may remain vulnerable to repeated washing and friction after wound closure. It focuses on high-molecular-weight hyaluronan, a water-retaining polymer of long chains between cells. It may weaken coupling between collagen fibrils, fine strands that help give skin strength, so repeated shear could leave more residual deformation while the network stays intact. Paired healed-skin samples would undergo selective hyaluronan breakdown, with checks that other matrix components remain intact. Less residual deformation and greater shear resilience within hours, even in a matrix containing no cells, would support this structural explanation. No immediate recovery would favor the rival idea that recovery depends on injury-related cell-signal timing.