title: The effect of graft-bed irradiation on the healing of rat skin grafts.
abstract: This study explores the possible side effects on healing skin grafts of irradiation, commonly used intraoperatively following surgical tumor removal. The experimental model involved the delivery of a single 10-Gy dose of electron radiation to the recipient bed of a skin wound, followed by attachment of a full thickness rat skin autograft. Skin graft repair was assessed by light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and transmission electron microscopy over a 3-week period for grafted and grafted-irradiated groups. Graft-bed irradiation reduced fibrinogen, fibrin, and fibronectin deposition in the wound. It also produced brief changes in the extent of both re-epithelialization and granulation tissue formation, and reduced the diameter of collagen fibrils in the granulation tissue. Despite these changes, the results suggest that graft-bed irradiation only delays the healing process, producing no serious clinical complications at the time points studied.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Science/Anatomy, Medical Biology Centre, Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Dickson
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Carr
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D013997:Time Factors; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000528:radiation effects*