Calcium and wound healing in Xenopus early embryos.

The role of calcium in the healing of wounds made in the ectoderm of Xenopus neurulae has been studied. Embryos have been wounded in the presence of calcium inhibitors, and the effects on wound healing observed by scanning electron microscopy. In addition, unwounded embryos have been exposed to a local application of ionophore A23187 to simulate the possible calcium fluxes following wounding. Lanthanum, which competes for calcium channels, inhibits wound healing. EDTA, which binds divalent cations, also inhibits wound healing, but its effect can be reversed by the addition of excess calcium. Local application of ionophore A23187, which promotes transport of calcium across biological membranes, results in a local change in cell shapes. These observations lend support to the hypothesis that wound healing in amphibian early embryos, which is effected by changes in cell shapes similar to those seen in certain examples of normal morphogenesis, is initiated by a local influx of calcium into cells.