Studies on wound healing in the neuroepithelium of the chick embryo

Wound healing has been studied by light microscopy, SEM, and TEM in the neuroepithelium of the early neurula (stages 6 and 8) and advanced neurula (stages 10 and 12) chick embryos. Healing involves two major events: (1) apposition of the wound edges and (2) restitution of the neuroepithelium at the wound site (i.e., restoration of the epithelial integrity of neuroepithelium). Apposition of the wound edges occurs within the first 15 minutes of re-incubation and involves the entire length of the wound. The main event during restoration is a change in the shapes of the rounded cells to elongated forms (i.e., spindle, wedge, and inverted wedge shapes). Wounds of younger embryos heal faster than those of older ones.