Morphological changes of intermingled skin transplants on rats.

Experiments with rats demonstrate that free skin transplants between genetically distinct strains become totally rejected after no longer than 3 weeks. In intermingled skin transplants, however, the autogenic epidermis directly covers the allodermis, which results in a definitively covered wound with a mostly normal skin texture. It seems that during the first phase after the burn the allodermis is accepted as donor skin. In the second phase it becomes covered by the epidermis and surrounded by the connective tissue of the recipient. During this process all structures of ectodermal origin like skin adnexa are rejected. Since for the most part the elastic fibres in the allograft remain unchanged after a successful intermingled skin transplantation, the transplant shows elasticity similar to a mesh autograft, but it is incapable of regenerating skin adnexa. After complete healing cellular and humoral infiltrates, as in the case of immunological rejections, could no longer be detected.