Enhanced expression of selectins in human skin wounds.

The aim of the study was to characterize the vitality and age of skin wounds by the detection of selectins. A prospective study was conducted for this purpose in which 197 vital human skin wounds (time since injury ranging from 3 min to 790 days) were investigated immunohistologically. Of the samples tested, 97 were taken from autopsy material and 100 from patient material from the department of surgery at the university hospital. The selectins were detected in paraffin sections after autoclaving and using the ABC technique. The intensity was rated by a semi-quantitative evaluation using a four-stage ordinal scale. Strong positive immunohistochemical reactions were observed for the P-selectin 3 min at the earliest and 7 h at the latest after the time of injury. For the E-selectin a positive staining was evident I h at the earliest and 17 days at the latest from the time the skin was injured. The staining intensity decreased significantly after an interval of 12 h from the time of injury (P < 0.05). The L-selectin was regularly detected on leukocytes in the samples of injured skin. The immunohistochemical results for the P- and E-selectins were significantly different between injured and uninjured skin (P < 0.01). The expression of the selectins is indicative of the vitality of the wound. P-selectin was detected in a few cases (n=4) at low intensity while E-selectin could not be found in the control samples (n=31) of postmortem skin wounds. The use of P- and E-selectins for forensic purposes can help to achieve better estimates of the age of wounds with short survival times.