Animal Models for Burn Injury and Wound Healing

Animal models remain indispensable for unravelling the complex interplay of cellular, molecular and systemic responses that follow thermal injury and drive wound repair. Small rodents, especially rats and mice, offer genetic tractability and cost-effectiveness but differ markedly from human skin in thickness, hair density and healing kinetics. Porcine models, by contrast, exhibit epidermal and dermal structures closely resembling those of humans and support the evaluation of dressings, cell therapies and pharmacological agents under clinically relevant conditions. Standardisation of burn depth (partial- versus full-thickness), injury modality (scald, contact or steam) and outcome measures (histological grading, morphometric analyses, blood flow imaging) has improved reproducibility, reduced animal numbers in accordance with ethical 3R principles, and facilitated interstudy comparisons. Nevertheless, interspecies variations in immune responses and scar formation continue to challenge direct translation of findings, underscoring the need for complementary ex vivo and computational approaches.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have established systematic wound arrays in miniature pigs to optimise the assessment of interventions while respecting reduction and refinement criteria. By mapping dorsal skin regions and standardising wound size (≥4 cm × 4 cm) and inter-wound distances (>4 cm), researchers achieved consistent closure rates and blood flow patterns for partial- (0.23 cm) and full-thickness (0.60 cm) wounds. Quantitative evaluation of re-epithelialisation, tensile strength and histological architecture confirmed that tissue repair mirrored human healing trajectories over 6 months. This framework provides golden standards for preclinical trials, enabling direct comparison of dressings, cell-based therapies and pro-angiogenic agents within a uniform anatomical context.

Animal Models for Burn Injury and Wound Healing publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in animal models for burn injury and wound healing across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Partial-thickness wound: Injury affecting the epidermis and upper dermal layers without full dermal disruption.

Full-thickness wound: Injury extending through the entire dermis into subcutaneous tissues.

Re-epithelialization: Restoration of the epidermal barrier by keratinocyte migration and proliferation.

Neovascularization: Formation of new blood vessels within healing tissue to restore perfusion.

3R principles: Ethical framework in animal research emphasising replacement, reduction and refinement to minimise harm.

References

1. A Standardized Porcine Model for Partial-Thickness Wound Healing Studies: Design, Characterization, Model Validation, and Histological Insights. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2024).
2. A Highly Standardized Pre-Clinical Porcine Wound Healing Model Powered by Semi-Automated Histological Analysis. Biomedicines (2024).
3. Skin wound healing assessment via an optimized wound array model in miniature pigs. Scientific Reports (2022).
4. Recent Advances in Experimental Burn Models. Biology (2021).