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Biol Bull 117: 546-561. (December 1959)
© 1959 Marine Biological Laboratory
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WOUND HEALING PROCESSES IN AMPUTATED MOUSE DIGITS

OSCAR E. SCHOTTÉ 1 and CHARLES B. SMITH 1

1 Department of Biology, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts

1. A systematic study of the early stages of amputational wound healing in mouse digits is presented. Digits were regularly amputated through the middle phalanx and a total of 191 cases were fixed for histological study at periods ranging from six hours to three weeks after amputation.

2. The first phases of post-amputational healing, characterized by provisional closure of the wound by a blood clot and by subsequent inflammation, were found to be similar to non-amputational wounds, but differences were observed in the patterns of epidermal, dermal and bone healing.

3. Epidermal healing began six hours after amputation and was completed in most cases by three days. Dermal and sub-dermal connective tissues showed the first signs of healing not earlier than three days after amputation and it was generally completed one week after amputation. The observation that epidermal closure of the wound preceded any signs of dermal repair indicates that these amputational wounds heal by "primary intention." It was also observed that tissue contraction contributed to this type of healing.

4. Depending upon the level through which the phalanx was amputated, two types of callus formations were observed: (a) amputation through the diaphysis resulted in the formation of a large callus that was more diffuse and amorphous than those previously described for healing fractures; (b) amputation through the epiphysis resulted in very little callus formation, often concomitant with destruction of bone.

5. An unusual aspect of amputational wound healing in mouse digits was the appearance of bursa-like formations between the cut bone and the healed epithelium; at three days a fluid space formed which subsequently developed into a structurally distinct cavity with the morphological characteristics of a bursa. However, these structures were only transitory and they disappeared during the second post-amputational week.

6. Two weeks after amputation the mouse digit was found to be almost completely healed. Additional growth in the form of a heavy cap of connective tissues arranged in parallel layers enclosing the distal and lateral parts of the cut bone was an invariable feature of this healing: The rapid return to equilibrium of the tissues within the amputation site was compared to a similar type of healing observed in amputated limbs of post-metamorphic frogs.






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Copyright © 1959 by the Marine Biological Laboratory.