What is the role of vitamin A in wound healing?

Prepare for the Tissue Injury, Healing, and Pain Test. Utilize flashcards and multiple-choice questions with hints and explanations. Ensure you're ready for the exam!

Vitamin A plays a key role in the re-epithelialization phase of wound healing. It supports epithelial cell proliferation and migration, helping the wound bed become covered by new epidermis and restoring the skin’s barrier function. This makes the wound close more effectively and reduces the risk of infection. In deficiency, epithelialization is slowed, and healing is delayed.

The other nutrients support different parts of healing. Vitamin C is essential for collagen synthesis and remodeling, which strengthens the wound over time, but that’s a separate aspect from the epithelialization process. Vitamin K isn’t a primary driver of new blood vessel formation, and vitamin D’s effects on keratinocyte behavior are not the main driver of rapid epithelialization in standard wound healing. So for vitamin A, the best-fit concept is its promotion of epithelialization and restoration of the skin barrier.