A biomechanical study of healing of skin incisions in rats during pregnancy.
Wound healing during both pregnancy and the postpartum phase results in stiffer, but not stronger, wounds. The probable mechanism is a hormonally mediated enhancement of fiber maturation. This mechanism, however, remains to be verified by a more direct study of the molecular stability of the collagen fibers. This study was undertaken to analyze the influence of pregnancy on reparative processes in extragenital connective tissue by using skin wound healing as an experimental model. Wounds were induced on gestational days 1 and 20, respectively, and analyzed biomechanically ten or 20 days later. Twenty day old wounds in rats in the pregnant and postpartal groups were found to be stiffer and required less energy to be ruptured than did those produced in nonpregnant rats, whereas ten day old wounds in pregnant rats were not found to differ in strength and stiffness from those in nonpregnant rats. The findings are compared with other studies on changes in reproductive hormone levels, and a mechanism for the biomechanical differences found is suggested.
D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003094:Collagen; D005260:Female; D007774:Lactation; D008954:Models, Biological; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D011270:Pregnancy, Animal; D051381:Rats; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013997:Time Factors; D014945:Wound Healing
D003094:Collagen