An improved animal model of hypertrophic scarring / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To improve the animal model of hypertrophic scars for studying their pathology. Methods Twenty nude mice were divided randomly into two groups of 10. In group one every mouse received a full thickness piece of human skin grafted into the subcutaneous tissue of their hack. After the graft had survived 14d after transplantation, a burn was caused on the graft with a heated copper cylinder. The mice in the second group received the transplant but no burn. The status of the grafts and scars was observed, and histological examinations of the grafts were performed. Results Nine mice in group one survived, of which eight developed obvious and persistent hyper-trophic scars after the burns. These were hard and rose above the surrounding skin. Eight nude mice survived in group two, of which only six developed hypertrophic sear analogues after transplantation. Histological examinations showed abundant collagen deposition and inflammatory infiltration in all sears. Conclusion The similarity, repeat-ability, certainty, and survival rate of this improved hypertrophic scar model are superior to those reported previously. This improved animal model can induce obvious and persistent scarring that can be used to observe the whole proce-dure of hypertrophic scarring, so it is a useful tool for studying hypertrophic scars.