[The significance of topic differences and cadaveric changes of histamine and serotonin levels for the determination of the age of wounds in animal experiments (author's transl)].

Even when the extraction method of Fazekas for the determination of the so-called free histamine and serotonin is used, different dorsal skin areas of laboratory animals show certain differences in the amine content, which reach higher values for histamine than for 5-HT. 1) Related to the animal collective, no differences in the mean values of the 5-HT and histamine content between the right and left side of damaged dorsal skin of guinea pigs resulted, although in single cases remarkable differences (up to 1.26 microgram/g) were found. Descending from nuchal to caudal a decrease of the amine content--less in case of 5-HT, more in case of histamine--is noticed. The observed topical differences possibly depend on the continous moulting of the animals. 2) From these analytical data a method for statistical prediction is derived, which allows to state, when and with which probability a single difference value exceeds the normal variance. Applied to the comparative measurements wounded skin/control skin it is thus made possible to test the validity of the findings obtained in practical cases. 3) Postmortal changes of the amine content of the wounded as well as the normal skin are not detectable for the 5-HT, while in the case of histamine solely the values of the damaged skin first show a decrease (24 h p.m.), followed by an increase (48 h p.m., bacterial neogenesis?).