LI Wangª²Zhou, SHI Bing, LIU Daª²Lie

    1Department of Plastic Surgery, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710038, China, 2Department of Plastic Surgery, Zhujiang Hospital, First Military Medical University, Guangzhou 511400, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To study the distribution variation of hyaluronic acid (HA) of fetal and adult rabbit skin in normal development and wound healing. METHODS: Based on the established fetal wound healing model, we observed the localization of HA by the method of Sauder in excised normal and wound skin. RESULTS: With the growth of fetus and maturing of epidermis, HA became less and less except for the basal layer and was distributed extensively in dermis. There was no HA stain in the epidermis of adult rabbits. HA in reticular layer was located around collagen fibrin. The strongest stain both in fetal and adult rabbit was located in the basal layer. HA expression became stronger in basal layer and dermis, with no difference between fetal and adult rabbits. Wounds in fetal rabbits healed completely at the fifth day. CONCLUSION: HA is a major component in extracellular matrix involved in wound healing and plays a very important role in wound healing and scar formation. ......