An immunohistochemical study on the temporal expression of interleukin-8 in the incised and stabbed wounds in human skin / 中国法医学杂志

ABSTRACT

To explore the applicability of interleukin 8(IL 8)to determination of wound age in the incised and stabbed human skin samples,an immunohistochemical study on the temporal expression of IL 8 was performed on 52 human skin wounds at different posttraumatic intervals.Expression of IL 8 was detectable in polymorphonuclear cells(PMNs)in the wound specimens aged 4h.In the wound specimens aged from 12～24h after injury,IL 8 was identified in a large number of infiltrating PMNs and part of mononuclear cells(MNCs).Afterwards,the MNCs and fibroblastic cells(FBCs)accounted in the most part of the IL 8 positive cells.Morphometrically,the ratio of the number of the IL 8 stained PMNs,MNCs and FBCs to total number of the cells in the wounds was evaluated and calculated.The ratio of the IL 8 positive cells was low in the wound specimens aged 4 and 6h(16 0?10 1%),and maximized in the wound specimens aged between 1 and 4 days(59 6%?8 7%).Thereafter,the ratio decreased and minimized in the specimens aged from 19 to 21 days(27 5?5 9%).The results suggest that IL 8 can be used as a marker for the wound age determination in both incised and stabbed human skin.