Wound healing in denervated rat skin

Recently, several reports have suggested that innervation influences wound healing. However, some investigators have reported that nerve injury prevented wound healing while others have suggested it had no influence on full-thickness skin wound healing. We created denervated skin areas on rats by dissection of the spinal hemicord. Subsequently, 15-mm-diameter skin defects were made symmetrically within the denervated area on the right side of the back and the normal innervated area on the left side. Biopsies were performed at 3, 7, and 14 days after wounding. We measured changes of the wound surface area, the rate of wound contraction, and the rate of epithelialization. The differences were not significant at 3 or 7 days after the operation. However, we could observe significantly delayed wound healing of the denervated skin areas compared to the normal areas at 14 days. Both wound contraction and epithelialization were delayed in the denervated groups. Our results suggest that sensory disturbance is a negative factor for skin wound healing.