Exploring nanoscale structure change of dermal tissues suffering injury by small angle X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy.

Scar formation and wound non-healing often occur during wound repair after skin injury, which are still unresolved. Clinic indicated that the structure played an important role in the wound repair. Our previous research showed that the wound over-healed (scar formation) when the integrity and continuity of dermal tissues was destroyed by injury. Other evidences showed that wound healing was impaired in diabetes because the underlying alternation in their skin tissues occurred caused by advanced glycation end products (AGES) aggregation. In order to explore the changes of the structure of skin at nanoscale, the small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), compared with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), was applied to observe the skin in different pathological status. The results showed that there were some regular patterns in the structure of dermal tissue. The patterns were changed by different pathological status, which would result in wound healing disorder. These will be beneficial for clarifying the pathological mechanisms of wound healing.