EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURE ON THE CLOSURE OF FULL THICKNESS SKIN WOUNDS IN THE RAT

¹ Department of Pathological Biochemistry, University and Royal Infirmary, Glasgow

Full thickness skin wounds in hooded Lister rats of the Rowett Institute strain kept at an environmental temperature of 30° C closed more rapidly than did those in similarly wounded rats housed at 20° C. The differences were statistically significant. This response was exhibited by both sexes and was found in experiments carried out at both Aberdeen and Glasgow.

The wounds in male rats were found to close more rapidly than those in female rats housed at the same temperature. The rectal temperature of the animals was not affected by the environmental temperature but the temperature of wounded skin was significantly higher (ca. 0.9° C) in the animals held at 30° C. Also in these latter rats, the response of skin temperature at the wound margin differed markedly from those at 20° C.

Rats at 20° C pair fed to rats at 30° C, who even prior to wounding eat less than those at 20° C, did not respond differently from rats allowed food ad libitum at the lower temperature.

The epithelium of the wounds advanced at a linear rate in the final stages of closure.

Note:

The authors wish to express their indebtedness to Miss E. Dalton for advice on statistical analysis and to Miss Helen Brough and Mrs. M. McArthur for valuable technical assistance. The senior author (D.P.C.) is in receipt of a Research Grant from the Medical Research Council to whom grateful acknowledgment is made. We are indebted to the Rankin Fund of the University of Glasgow for funds for the purchase of cages and racks. We are also grateful for the facilities provided in this Department of the University of Glasgow in the Royal Infirmary and by the Board of Management of the Hospital, which were kindly made available first through the late Dr. J. C. Eaton and now by Professor H. G. Morgan.