A study of burns for wound ageing reveals changes in unburnt skin with implications for future research

Thirty-three punch biopsy sets of burn wound edge and adjacent unburnt skin from burn wounds aged six hours to 23 days were obtained from 18 patients. Immunohistochemical staining was performed for transforming growth factor beta receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor and MIB-1 (which stains the cell cycle associated antigen ki-67) in addition to integrins alpha V, 5 and 3 to assess for temporal patterns that might assist in the ageing of burn wounds. There was an early (12hr-4day) rise in integrin alpha V expression, an increasing expression of transforming growth factor beta receptor from 12 hours onwards, and increased expression of MIB-1 commencing at 2 days. In biopsy samples from the edge of the burn there was a trend for an early (6 hr-4 day) rise in epidermal growth factor receptor expression. There were no discernable changes in integrin alpha 5 or 3. The striking feature was that biopsy samples from the adjacent, unburnt skin showed similar temporal staining patterns. A further study would be required to determine if the effect was generalised or local, but the observation of changes in unburnt tissue implies that careful consideration must be given to selecting control tissue.