Surgical Approaches to Create Murine Models of Human Wound Healing
Figure 1
Surgical mouse models of cutaneous disease. (a) Full thickness excisional wound models are commonly used to assess numerous components of wound healing in vivo. Contraction of the underlying panniculosus carnosus can be minimized with a splinted wound model (right) whereby wound repair proceeds mainly through granulation tissue formation and re-epithelialization similar to human skin repair. (b) The ischemic flap model produces a controlled gradient of ischemia based on the number and location of feeding blood vessels. Skin regions furthest from the vessel/s are the most ischemic. (c) Cyclical pressure can be applied with opposing magnets and interpositioned skin to mimic reperfusion/ischemia injury thought to drive pressure ulcer pathophysiology. (d) The application of exogenous mechanical loading to mouse incisions results in increased wound fibrosis similar to human hypertrophic scarring.
