Fig 1.
A random pattern flap was elevated on the dorsum of the rat along the longitudinal axis.
The pedicle of the flap was placed on the caudal side. (a) The flap was elevated with the panniculus carnosus. (b) The elevated flap was sutured back to its original location.
Table 1.
Primer sequences.
Fig 2.
(a) Representative flaps from the control group and the KUS121-administered group. In each group, the distal side of the skin flap turned black. (b) The ratio of the injured area to whole flap area is shown. The boxes and lines inside each box indicate lower, upper quartile, and median; the whiskers indicate minimum and maximum value. The black dots indicate the mean. n = 6 for each group; * indicates a difference between groups (p < 0.01) by Student’s t-test.
Fig 3.
Skin tissues were collected on day 7 after surgery.
(a) Arrows indicate blood vessels. (b) Mean blood vessel density was obtained by counting the number of blood vessels in each visual field observed at 200× magnification. Box and whisker plots indicate median, lower, and upper quartile, minimum and maximum value. Three random fields of view were observed for each tissue. n = 6 for each group. ns: Not significant (Mann–Whitney U-test).
Fig 4.
Skin tissues were collected on day 3 after surgery.
(a) A representative section of a specimen from Zone 3 stained with TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end labeling (TUNEL) and observed at 400× magnification. Reddish brown cells are TUNEL-positive cells. (b) The number of TUNEL-positive cells in each visual field (high-power field, HPF) was counted. Box and whisker plots indicate median, lower, and upper quartile, minimum and maximum value. Three random fields of view were observed for each tissue. n = 3 for each group. *p < 0.01 (Welch’s t-test).
Fig 5.
CHOP immunostaining of tissues harvested 3 days after surgery.
(a) Representative sections from Zone 2 are shown in control and KUS121 groups. (b) CHOP-positive cell density in Zone 2. Box and whisker plots indicate median, lower, and upper quartile, minimum and maximum value. Three random fields of view were observed for each tissue. n = 3 for each group. *p < 0.01 (Welch’s t-test).
Fig 6.
Expression of mRNA in the central flap 24 hours after surgery.
(a) Expression of Casp3 (encoding caspase-3). The bar indicates the mean of each biological replicates in two groups. Expression of each biological replicate were shown in scatter plots. (b) Expression of Ddit3 (encoding CHOP) (c,d) Expression of Vegfa and Kdr (encoding VEGF-A and VEGFR-2). (e,f) Expression of Egf and Egfr (encoding EGF and EGFR). n = 4 for control group, and n = 3 for K.