A histological study of the early stages of cutaneous wound healing in lizards in in vivo and in vitro

The responses of the skin to wounding from six hours to ten days have been studied histologically in a variety of lizard species. Whatever the size of the initial wound, all aspects of cutaneous structure, i.e., general scale architecture, epidermal cell activity, and epidermal specializations, are disrupted by a sequence of cellular events quite distinct from those described in other vertebrates. The epidermis on either side of the incision dies along a variable length, and epithelial migration occurs along a prepared hypercellular path through the dermis where the normal collagen fibers are destroyed. A segment of apparently physically undamaged tissue is discarded from the body surface and the subjacent “wound epidermis” undergoes rapid cell proliferation and maturation leading to the formation of a hyperplastic cornified tissue whose cells resemble the normal α‐layer, but which shows no indication of the typical epidermal generation structure.