Cellular events during scar-free skin regeneration in the spiny mouse, Acomys

In contrast to the lab mouse, Mus musculus, several species of spiny mouse, Acomys, can regenerate epidermis, dermis, hairs, sebaceous glands with smooth muscle erector pili muscles and skeletal muscle of the panniculus carnonsus after full thickness skin wounding. Here, we have compared the responses of these scarring and nonscarring organisms concentrating on the immune cells and wound cytokines, cell proliferation, and the collagenous components of the wound bed and scar. The blood of Acomys is very neutropenic but there are greater numbers of mast cells in the Acomys wound than the Mus wound. Most importantly there are no F4/80 macrophages in the Acomys wound and many proinflammatory cytokines are either absent or in very low levels which we suggest may be primarily responsible for the excellent regenerative properties of the skin of this species. There is little difference in cell proliferation in the two species either in the epidermis or mesenchymal tissues but the cell density and matrix composition of the wound is very different. In Mus there are 8 collagens which are up‐regulated at least 5‐fold in the wound creating a strongly trichrome‐positive matrix whereas in Acomys there are very few collagens present and the matrix shows only light trichrome staining. The major component of the Mus matrix is collagen XII which is up‐regulated between 10 and 30‐fold after wounding. These results suggest that in the Acomys wound the absence of many cytokines resulting in the lack of macrophages is responsible for the failure to up‐regulate fibrotic collagens, a situation which permits a regenerative response within the skin rather than the generation of a scar.