Biomedical characteristics of expanded skin after transplantation

This study is to investigate the changes in biomechanical characteristics of expanded skin after transplantation. Expanders were implanted into the back of eight adult dogs. The expanded and the control skins were transplanted after an eight-week expansion. Then, the expanded specimens and their controls at different stages, namely, with different recovering times after transplantation, were studied. The stress-relaxation characteristics, the stress-strain characteristics and tensile strength of expanded and control skins were studied. The tests demonstrate that, during the initial stage after transplantation, the biomechanical properties of experimental specimens deviate from those of their controls significantly. However, these characteristics of expanded and control specimens begin to close gradually with longer recovering time. And when the recovering time reaches 24 weeks or longer, the experimental skin specimens exhibit the same mechanical properties as their controls.