Opalenik was the finding that bone-marrow derived stem cells found in the circulatory system, called fibrocytes, migrate to sites of wounding and participate in the wound healing response. In her study of age-impaired wound healing in animal models, she found that fibrocytes appeared sooner in the wound site of young animals and that wound inflammation was delayed in aged animals, both of which may significantly affect the overall wound healing response with aging.

Space limitations make it impossible to cover the entire meeting, so readers are invited to visit the WHS webpage for additional information about the meeting, the Society, and the Foundation (http://www.woundheal.org/). Abstracts are published in the March/April 2002 issue of Wound Repair and Regeneration (http://www.blackwellscience.com/journals/wound/index.html).

The next Annual Meeting of the Wound Healing Society will be May 3–8, 2003, in Seattle, Washington.