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A Simplified Technique for Producing an Ischemic Wound Model
Published on: May 2, 2012
An ear punch model for studying the effect of radiation on wound healing
Divino Deoliveira1, Yiqun Jiao, Joel R Ross
1Departments of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Purpose:
Radiation and wound combined injury represents a major clinical challenge because of the synergistic interactions that lead to higher morbidity and mortality than either insult would produce singly. The purpose of this study was to develop a mouse ear punch model to study the physiological mechanisms underlying radiation effects on healing wounds.
Materials And Methods:
Surgical wounds were induced by a 2 mm surgical punch in the ear pinnae of MRL/MpJ mice. Photographs of the wounds were taken and the sizes of the ear punch wounds were quantified by image analysis. Local radiation to the ear was delivered by orthovoltage X-ray irradiator using a specially constructed jig that shields the other parts of body.
Results:
Using this model, we demonstrated that local radiation to the wound area significantly delayed the healing of ear punch wounds in a dose-dependent fashion. The addition of sublethal whole body irradiation (7 Gy) further delayed the healing of ear punch wounds. These results were replicated in C57BL/6 mice; however, wound healing in MRL/MpJ mice was accelerated.
Conclusions:
These data indicate that the mouse ear punch model is a valuable model to study radiation and wound combined injury.
