Intrinsic electric fields promote epithelization of wounds in the newt, Notophthalmus viridescens

Abstract

The lateral electric fields (LFs) in the vicinity of small wounds made in hindlimb digit tip skin of Notophthalmus viridescens have been measured and manipulated. Healing of these wounds was assessed by crystal violet staining and by histology. Paired experiments were conducted on the animals: the healing of one digit's wound was compared with healing of the contralateral digit's wound whose LF was changed from that of its contralateral wound. When currents were passed through the animal (into one wound and out of the contralateral wound) so that the LF of one wound was zero while the contralateral wound had an enhanced LF, the wounds with the enhanced LF healed more rapidly than the wounds with the zero LF. When digits on one side were treated with 30 microM benzamil in an artificial pond water so that their wound LFs were reduced to approximately zero, and the contralateral wounds were kept in artificial pond water without benzamil so that they had normal wound LFs, there was significantly less epithelization of the benzamil-treated wounds than of the control wounds. This effect on wound healing was reversed by adding currents that restored the normal wound LFs, but not by adding currents that reversed the wound LFs to the opposite polarity. When currents were added to reverse the wound LFs on one side of the animal, leaving the contralateral wounds free of added currents, the wounds with the reversed LFs healed more poorly than the contralateral wounds with normal LFs. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the intrinsic LFs in the vicinity of wounds promote epithelization of these wounds.