Study on the optimal ratio of autoskin and alloskin during mixed microskin grafting

Objective To investigate the influence of different amounts of allogeneic microskin in mixed grafting with certain quantity of autologous microskin on rat wound healing. Methods Microskin grafting was performed on the full-thickness skin defect wound of recipient female Sprague-Dawley rats. Allogeneic microskin was derived from male Wistar rats. Autologous microskin was used in control group (Auto) at area expansion rate of 20:1. The other two experimental groups of mixed grafting group Ⅰ(Mix Ⅰ) and mixed grafting group Ⅱ(Mix Ⅱ) had the same area expansion rate of autologous microskin (20:1) with different amounts of allogeneic microskin, ie. 20:3 and 20:6, respectively. The wound healing rate and wound contraction were measured at the 3rd and 4th weeks post-graft. Results The wound healing rates in Mix Ⅰ and Mix Ⅱ were significantly higher than that in Auto at the 3rd and 4th weeks after the grafting. More importantly, there was an obvious difference of wound healing rate between Mix Ⅰ and Mix Ⅱ. Mix Ⅱ had a higher wound healing rate at the 3rd and 4th weeks post-graft. As for the wound contraction rate, there was no difference among three groups at the 3rd and 4th weeks post-graft. Conclusion These results indicate that wound healing could be remarkably accelerated by mixed microskin grafting with appropriate quantity of autologous and allogeneic microskin. More amount of allogeneic microskin (20:6) has higher wound healing rate in comparison to less amount of allogeneic microskin (20:3) when it is mixed with autologous microskin (20:1) .