Genetically Diabetic Wound Healing Study

All experimental protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at University of Tennessee Health Science Center and followed the guidelines described in the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Twelve-week old matched, female, genetically diabetic C57BKS.Cg-m/Leprdb/J (Db) mice and heterozygous, non-diabetic (non-Db), female controls were obtained from the Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and were used in this experiment. All wounding procedures were performed under inhaled Isoflurane anesthesia. The posterior neck and back were shaved and depilated prior to wounding. The area was cleaned with an alcohol swab and a single dorsal full-thickness wound was made with an 8 mm punch biopsy (Miltex, Inc., York, PA, USA) Wounds were then dressed with a Tegaderm (3M), which was subsequently removed on post-operative day 2. A full-thickness skin sample, centered on the wound, was harvested at 3 and 7 days after surgery (n = 5 per timepoint).