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Actin cables and epidermal movement in embryonic wound healing

Nature volume 360, pages 179–183 (1992)Cite this article

Abstract

SKIN wounds in embryos heal rapidly and perfectly. Even though the epidermis appears to be stretched taut over the surface of a structure such as a growing limb bud, its response to wounding is to close over the lesion, rather than to gape more widely. In adult wounds, the epidermis seems to migrate by means of lamellipodia, crawling over the exposed connective tissue1–5. But in embryonic wounds we do not see lamellipodia. The epidermis at the edge of the wound looks smooth, as though under a circumferential tension. Here we show that a cable of filamentous actin appears to run continuously around most of the wound margin. It is confined to the single row of basal cells at the free edge of the epidermis. We suggest that the actin cable acts as a contractile 'purse string' to close up the embryonic wound.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Anatomy, Oxford University, Oxford, 0X1 3QX, UK

    Paul Martin

  2. ICRF Developmental Biology Unit, Department of Zoology, Oxford University, Oxford, 0X1 3PS, UK

    Julian Lewis

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  1. Paul Martin
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  2. Julian Lewis
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Martin, P., Lewis, J. Actin cables and epidermal movement in embryonic wound healing. Nature 360, 179–183 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/360179a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/360179a0

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