In-vivo monitoring rat skin wound healing using nonlinear optical microscopy

Nonlinear optical microscopy (NLOM) was employed for imaging and evaluating the wound healing process on rat skin in vivo. From the high-resolution nonlinear optical images, the morphology and distribution of specific biological markers in cutaneous wound healing such as fibrin clot, collagens, blood capillaries, and hairs were clearly observed at 1, 5 and 14 days post injury. We found that the disordered collagen in the fibrin clot at day 1 was replaced by regenerative collagen at day 5. By day 14, the thick collagen with well-network appeared at the original margin of the wound. These findings suggested that NLOM is ideal for noninvasively monitoring the progress of wound healing in vivo.