Estrogen modulates cutaneous wound healing by downregulating macrophage migration inhibitory factor
J. Clin. Invest. Gillian S. Ashcroft, et al. 111:1309 doi:10.1172/JCI16288 [Go to this article.]

Figure 4
Reduced inflammation in the MIF null wounds. (a) An absence of MIF leads to reduced wound blood-vessel area (vessel area presented as a percentage of total wound area) at day 7; however, an absence of estrogen has no effect on neovascularization. Results represent means ± SEM (n = 4, *P < 0.05 for comparisons between intact null and intact wild-type or OVX null and OVX wild-type). (b) Mac3 staining illustrates increased inflammatory cell infiltrate in the OVX wild-type wounds as compared with the OVX MIF null wounds at day 3. Scale bars represent 20 μm. Cell numbers per unit area were quantified at day 3 (c). Results represent means ± SEM (n = 7–10 for each group, *P < 0.05). (d) TNF-α protein levels were increased in the wild-type OVX wounds as compared with the MIF null OVX wounds from days 3–14 after wounding (d, graph) by quantification of immunostaining. Normal skin is scored as 0. Results represent medians (black lines across boxes), boxes represent interquartile ranges, and the bars extending from the boxes indicate the highest and lowest values (n = 7, *P < 0.05). All data are taken from OVX mice. Left panels represent day-3 immunostaining, illustrating increased cell numbers positive for TNF-α in the wild-type OVX wounds. Scale bars represent 50 μm.