Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
 |
Checking for direct PDF access through Ovid | |
Excerpt
The aim of finding an alternative to an autograft at an age at which the lack of skin coverage is especially grave has led us to explore the behavior of fetal skin grafts on newborn animals. Fetal and neonatal rabbit skin allografts were used to cover excisional skin wounds in neonatal rabbits.
Macroscopic and microscopic features of the grafted area were compared on postoperative days 7, 14, and 21. Fetal skin grafts did not appear different macroscopically from newborn skin grafts after 7 days. The grafts seemed viable and were covered in part by a scab. At 14 and 21 days, the original wounds were coated by a loose scab, under which the wound was healed in both groups. Microscopically, the healing of the wounds covered with fetal or newborn grafts advanced from the edges of the recipient’s skin defect following an a adult healing pattern, with collagen deposition resulting in fibrosis. The graft, which was necrotic, was rejected toward the wound surface. However, in the fetal graft there was less edema, no giant cell reaction, and increased vascularization began and subsided earlier (Fig). The fetal graft forms a thinner scab that loosens more easily, under which the healed epidermal layer has normal thickness, and appears to heal faster.
Fetal skin could provide a variety of factors that would account for the rapidity in healing and perhaps for a more aesthetically appealing scar. 8 These factors should be investigated further in animals models for identification, dose, and the best timing for exogenous administration before any clinical application is assayed.
