Wound healing and collagen formation. VI. The origin of the wound fibroblast studied in parabiosis.

Healing skin wounds were studied in a series of parabiotic rats. The femurs of one parabiont of each pair were shielded whilst both animals were given 800 r from a Co(60) source. The animals were wounded 3 days after irradiation. Each animal with partially shielded marrow was then given tritiated thymidine intraperitoneally daily while the cross-circulation was arrested by clamping. After the thymidine-(3)H had cleared the blood, the clamp was released. Animals were sacrificed, and wounds were prepared for radioautography 1, 2, and 6 days after wounding. In the wounds of the shielded animals thymidine-(3)H was observed in epidermis, endothelium, leukocytes, fibroblasts, and mast cells. Only neutrophilic leukocytes, monocytes, and lymphocytes were labeled, as determined by light and electron microscope radioautography, in the wounds of each nonshielded parabiont. None of the many fibroblasts present were found to contain label in the wounds of the nonshielded parabionts through the 6 day period. These observations provide further evidence that wound fibroblasts do not arise from hematogenous precursors and, therefore, must arise from adjacent connective tissue cells.