Time dependence of the expression of ICAM-1 (CD 54) in human skin wounds.
To characterize the vitality and age of skin wounds by means of the ICAM-1 pattern, 157 intravital human skin wounds (time since injury ranging from 5 min to 730 days) were immunohistochemically investigated. ICAM-1 was detected in paraffin sections after autoclaving and using the ABC technique in 86% of the wounds investigated. The correlation between ICAM-1 expression and the degree of wound inflammation is weak. Strong positive staining was observed 1.5 h at the earliest and 3.5 days at the latest after the time of injury. ICAM-1 also appeared at low concentrations in samples of uninjured skin (n = 65), on keratinocytes and the endothelial cells of blood vessels. Moderate to strong ICAM-1 expression is a valuable indication of the vitality of the wound. However, at present the detection of ICAM-1 alone is not sufficient to fix the wound age with the accuracy which is required for forensics applications.
Dressler
J
J
Department of Legal Medicine, Technical University Medical School, Dresden, Germany.
Bachmann
L
L
Kasper
M
M
Hauck
J G
JG
Müller
E
E
D000328:Adult; D001344:Autopsy / Q000379:methods; D015415:Biomarkers; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery
D015415:Biomarkers; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1