Figure 5.

Macrophage ablation results in reduced cell proliferation during wound healing. DTR transgenic mice were subjected to excisional wounding and either left untreated (NT) or treated with diphtheria toxin (DT). BrdU was injected into mice 1 hour before tissue collection, and cryosections of wounds collected on day 7 postinjury were stained with an antibody against BrdU. Representative sections of wounds on day 7 postinjury showing reduced proliferation in DTR-DT mice (middle) compared with DTR-NT mice (top; images obtained with a ×5 objective). Arrows indicate wound edges. Scale bar = 0.2 mm. Bottom: the number of labeled cells in each section was counted and normalized to area of the wound bed. Data are presented as means ± SE; n = 6 mice/group. *P < 0.05 when compared to nontreated controls.