Pigmented skin exhibits accelerated wound healing compared to the nonpigmented skin in Guinea pig model

Rohit Gupta; Anshu Priya; Manish Chowdhary; Vineeta V Batra; Jyotsna; Perumal Nagarajan; Rajesh S Gokhale; Archana Singh

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108159

Pigmented skin exhibits accelerated wound healing compared to the nonpigmented skin in Guinea pig model

iScience. 2023 Oct 6;26(11):108159. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108159. eCollection 2023 Nov 17.

Authors

Rohit Gupta^{1

2}, Anshu Priya^{1

2}, Manish Chowdhary^{1

2}, Vineeta V Batra³, Jyotsna⁴, Perumal Nagarajan⁴, Rajesh S Gokhale⁴, Archana Singh^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi 110025, India.
² Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Ghaziabad 201002, India.
³ Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital, New Delhi 110002, India.
⁴ National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi 110067, India.

Abstract

This study investigated and compared the wound healing kinetics of pigmented (PG) and non-pigmented (NP) skin in guinea pigs, focusing on histological and transcriptional changes. Full-thickness wounds created on PG and NP skin were evaluated at various time points post-injury. Fontana-Masson staining and ultrastructural analysis suggested the presence of melanin and melanosomes in PG skin, which coincided with an upregulation of melanogenic genes cKIT, TYR, and DCT. On day 9 post-wound, PG skin exhibited a rapid transition from the inflammatory to proliferative phase, which correlated with the reappearance of epidermal pigmentation whereas the NP skin exhibited a delayed neo-epidermis formation. Furthermore, the study revealed that melanocyte-derived growth factors (conditioned media) positively regulated keratinocyte migration while inhibiting fibroblast differentiation. These effects were more prominent in tyrosine-treated (hyperpigmented) melanocyte-CM as was TGF- β expression. These findings provide valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying skin repair and pigmentation.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Cell biology; Histology; Molecular biology.