A mixture of allogeneic dermal tissue and autologous microskin grafting of rabbit skin wound.

In a rabbit model, transplantation of largely expanded microskin grafts (expansion ratio 25 X) were studied. In Group I, the autologous microskin grafts were transplanted onto the full-thickness skin defect on the back of a rabbit and were overlaid with Biobrane. In Group II, the autologous microskin grafts were mixed with allogeneic microdermal substance (expansion ratio 25 X) before the transplantation. The percentage of re-epithelialized area to the total grafted wound was analyzed by means of computerized planimetric analyses of photographs of the grafted wounds on days 11 and 13. Biopsies of the grafted wounds were done. On day 11, the mean percentage of Group I was 72.4% and that of Group II was 82.7%. On day 13, they were 82.3% in Group I and 92.3% in Group II. In Group II, the allogeneic dermal tissue did not cause obvious rejection in the neoepithelium. Histological features showed the existence of allogeneic dermal tissue in the grafted wound. The adding of largely expanded allogeneic dermal substance to autologous microskin grafts in Group II provided better circumstances than that in Group I for re-epithelialization of autologous mciroskin grafts.