The proliferation of elastic fibres after skin incisions in albino mice and rats: a light and electron microscopic study.

The replacement of elastic fibres in healing skin wounds in mice and rats was studied with light and electron microscopy. New elastic fibres were seen 1 week post-wounding in the deepest regions of the scar. By 3 weeks post-wounding they could be found in the regenerating dermis. There followed a proliferation of these fibres to numbers far greater than those in unwounded skin. These elevated numbers persisted for the duration of the experiment (4 months). The common notion that elastic fibre formation is not a component of the repair of skin wounds is clearly erroneous.