**1. Introduction**

Scarless Wound healing is considered as the elusive *Holy Grail* of wound management [1]. While scars are considered as 'badges of honour' in some cultures and highly prized [2, 3]; in most scenarios, people prefer to avoid or minimise them as much as possible. And in some cases, formation of a 'scar' leads to functional impairment that hampers the quality of one's life—such as scars from abrasions on the ocular surface that lead to corneal opacity and hamper vision [4–8].

Wound healing is composed of three overlapping stages involving cellular and molecular processes that generally culminate into a fibrotic patch to 'repair' the wound with [3]. These 'scar tissues' have no hair follicles or sweat glands, and are inflexible and weaker than regular skin. They also limit movement and do not easily adapt to temperature changes [9].

Wound healing is a complex series of reactions primarily involving three distinct stages: *inflammation*, *proliferation* and *maturation* or remodelling of the tissue [10]. Each stage involves a complex series of interactions among the involved cells and their mediators (**Figure 1**).

#### **Figure 1.**

*Stages of wound healing- representative image indicating the four primary stages involved in wound healing since the inception of the injury (A), and the pathogens on the epidermal surface which may lead to opportunistic infections. The inflammation stage (B) when the scab is formed to staunch the bleeding and macrophages activated to combat pathogens. The injury leads to 'signals' that summon fibroblasts, macrophages, neutrophils and platelets to the site of the injury. The proliferation stage (C) when the arriving cells proliferate and re-structure the ECM. The maturation stage (D) when the wound contracts and leads to the development of a scar.*
