Hydroxyproline Turnover in Dermal Collagen Grafts in Reconstructed Skin Wounds in the Rat

Abstract

Using donor skin labelled with tritiated hydroxyproline and proline, a comparative study has been made of hydroxy-proline (and by extrapolation collagen) turnover in skin, dermal collagen and glutaraldehyde crosslinked dermal collagen grafts in unlabelled isogenic recipient rats. In contrast with non-crosslinked collagen and skin grafts, collagen grafts stabilized by crosslinking with 0.01% glutaraldehyde underwent little loss of original graft collagen and maintained their original collagen mass over a 22 week period. As the skin grafts acquired a similar amount of new collagen to that lost, they also maintained their original mass. However, the non-crosslinked collagen grafts showed only a small gain of new collagen and lost 57% of their original mass.