Healing of laser and scalpel incision wounds of rat tongue mucosa as studied with cytokeratin antibodies

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Abstract
The healing process of laser- and scalpel-incision wounds of rat tongue mucosa was investigated by the indirect immunofluorescence technique using a monoclonal cytokeratin antibody (PKK2) binding to low molecular weight keratins of basal keratinocytes, two antibodies reacting with suprabasal keratins and a monoclonal antibody reacting with desmosomes. The wounds were made parallel on both sides of the tongue in thirty animals. In normal tongue only the basal cell layer and the cells at the base of the rete ridges showed PKK2-positivity. In both types of wounds at the same healing phase the whole proliferative cell layer showed a bright PKK2-positivity. The cell proliferation appeared to be confined to all cells of the mucosa. The disturbance in the keratin expression of the healing mucosa could also be revealed with another monoclonal (58CH8) antibody, which reacted only with the suprabasal cells in normal tongue mucosa but lacked reactivity with the healing keratinocytes, whereas polyclonal antibodies to callus keratins showed a bright reactivity also in the healing keratinocytes. Monoclonal antibodies to desmoplakins indicated that the keratinocytes in both types of wounds had normal desmosomal cell-to-cell junctions. As the healing process advanced, the PKK2-positivity regressed to that seen in normal tongue mucosa.

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