Figure 1.

Isometric contraction of wound granulation tissue. Maximum contraction of tissue strips taken from 3- to 12-day-old wound granulation tissue and normal dermal tissue (0 days) was quantified after stimulation with ET-1 (A) and AT-II (B). Tissue from splinted wounds (continuous line) exhibits significantly higher contractility already at early stages of development (6 days) and maintains high levels of contractility up to 10 days after wounding compared to unsplinted granulation tissue (dashed line). Normal dermal tissue shows no significant contractility (0 days). Bars indicate SD of mean values. Filled squares indicate P ≤ 0.01 for comparison between unsplinted and splinted tissue of the same age.