Sequence of melanocyte migration into human scar tissue

Abstract

Scars of human skin can on occasions provide a very useful ancillary method of identification of an unknown deceased. If the age of any visible scars can be estimated objectively, then this might be of some assistance in the identification procedure. Melanocytes migrate into scar tissue as it ages and their number within the epidermal basal layers alters during the maturation of a scar. A total of 64 scar samples, all from previous surgical sites, were taken in the course of autopsies. Each scar was stained by the H & E method and by an immunohistochemical method using polyclonal S100 antibody. The number of melanocytes in the basal layer was counted in the epidermis overlying the scar and in the adjacent epidermis. This ratio was matched with the documented age of the scar and a statistical evaluation was carried out matching the chronological age of the scars to the melanocyte/basal epidermal cells ratio. Scars with a duration between 1 and 3 years showed a mean ratio of 1.85 and a maximum ratio of 1.94, 1.8 years after a surgical operation. The number of basal melanocytes declined thereafter and reached that of the adjacent epidermis after about 10 years. The immunohistochemical detection of melanocytes can be used for the diagnostic ageing of scars which may be a valuable contribution to improve the identification of unknown deceased persons.

Forensic application of VEGF expression to skin wound age determination

“…Wound age determination is closely involved in the pathophysiology of the wound healing process. With advances in biochemical and immunohistochemical techniques, several markers have been applied to wound age determination [3,4,5,6,7,8] and immunohistochemical analysis is now exclusively utilized for wound age determination [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. VEGF has been characterized as an angiogenic growth factor from media conditioned by bovine pituitary folliculostellate cells.…”

“…Skin wound healing is a relevant aspect of forensic practice with respect to the determination of wound age and wound vitality. Thus, many studies on forensic wound age determination have been performed [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Recently, biological substances such as growth factors, cytokines, and adhesion molecules have become useful markers for wound age determination [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30].…”

Estimating wound age: looking into the future

“…Furthermore, the migration of melanocytes, within scar tissue, was studied using S100 polyclonal antibody showing a maximum at 1.8 years in scars (mean 1.85-1.94), thereafter gradually decreasing to basal within about 10 years [68].…”

Treatment of Radiation Injury

“…Hyper-and hypopigmentation of the skin arise from enhanced activity or damage to melanocytes or the melanocyte-melanosome complex. 5 …”