Skin Cancer Center Charité, Department of Dermatology, Venerology and Allergology, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany.
Wound Repair Regen. 2011 Nov;19(6):671-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1524-475X.2011.00737.x. Epub 2011 Oct 19.
The dynamic process of wound healing is routinely evaluated by clinical or histological evaluation. Recently, a number of non-invasive imaging techniques have been evaluated for their clinical applicability in dermatology. Among them, reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) represents a non-invasive imaging technique that allows the in vivo characterization of the skin at near-histological resolution. The aim of this study was to monitor epidermal wound repair using RCM in a model of tissue damage induced by cryosurgery. For this purpose, contact cryosurgery was performed at -32 °C for 10 seconds on the volar forearm of five healthy volunteers. Clinical and RCM evaluations were performed at nine consecutive time points. RCM allowed the visualization of edema formation and blood vessel dilatation immediately after cryosurgery, as well as morphologic features of wound repair, including the formation of finger-like protusions of keratinocytes into the wound bed, the appearance of hairpin-like vessels, and inflammatory cells. This pilot study illustrates that RCM represents a promising technique for quasi-real-time monitoring the kinetics of wound repair non-invasively and over time, thus offering new insights into in vivo processes of cutaneous wound repair and angiogenesis, as well as potential effects of topically applied drugs on the process of tissue repair.
伤口愈合的动态过程通常通过临床或组织学评估来评估。最近，许多非侵入性成像技术已被评估其在皮肤科的临床适用性。其中，反射共聚焦显微镜（RCM）代表一种非侵入性成像技术，可在接近组织学分辨率的情况下对皮肤进行体内特征描述。本研究的目的是使用 RCM 监测冷冻手术诱导的组织损伤模型中的表皮伤口修复。为此，在五名健康志愿者的掌侧前臂上以-32°C 的温度进行接触冷冻手术，持续 10 秒。在连续九个时间点进行临床和 RCM 评估。RCM 允许在冷冻手术后立即观察到水肿形成和血管扩张，以及伤口修复的形态特征，包括角质形成细胞呈指状突起进入伤口床、发夹状血管和炎症细胞的出现。这项初步研究表明，RCM 是一种很有前途的技术，可以非侵入性地实时监测伤口修复的动力学，从而为皮肤伤口修复和血管生成的体内过程以及局部应用药物对组织修复过程的潜在影响提供新的见解。
