Prestorage WBC filtration did not reduce the incidence of these reactions, and inflammatory cytokines were of minor relevance. The proinflammatory platelet-derived chemokine RANTES, which accumulates even in WBC-reduced platelet concentrates, was associated with allergic transfusion reactions. Platelet-derived mediators may be a key to understanding NHTRs.

Platelet factor 4, beta-thromboglobulin, and RANTES were released from platelets during storage and accumulated over time in the PCs. These chemokines might play a causative role in nonhemolytic transfusion reactions because of their inflammatory potential, but the clinical effects of the transfusion of PCs with high chemokine contents remain to be investigated.

The dynamic friction coefficient between skin and a Teflon probe and its correlation with age, body weight, height, transepidermal water loss and skin capacitance was studied in vulvar and forearm skin of 44 healthy female volunteers. The friction coefficient of vulvar skin was 0.66 ± 0.03 (mean ± SEM) compared to that of forearm skin of 0.48 ± 0.01. The difference was highly significant (p < 0.001). Multiple-regression analysis showed that the vulvar skin friction coefficient was significantly correlated with capacitance as an indicator of stratum corneum hydration (p < 0.01) but not with age weight height or transepidermal water loss. It is concluded that the high friction coefficient of vulvar skin may be due to the increased hydration of vulvar skin. Age-related differences seem to exist for transepidermal water loss and friction coefficient in forearm but not in vulvar skin.

Background: The healing of wounds has always provided challenges for the medical community whether chronic or acute. Understanding the processes which enable wounds to heal is primarily carried out by the use of models, in vitro, animal and human. It is generally accepted that the use of human models offers the best opportunity to understand the factors that influence wound healing as well as to evaluate efficacy of treatments applied to wounds. Objectives: The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the different methodologies that are currently used to experimentally induce wounds of various depths in human volunteers and examines the information that may be gained from them. Methods: There is a number of human volunteer healing models available varying in their invasiveness to reflect the different possible depth levels of wounds.Results: Currently available wound healing models include sequential tape stripping, suction blister, abrasion, laser, dermatome, and biopsy techniques. The various techniques can be utilized to induce wounds of variable depth, from removing solely the stratum corneum barrier, the epidermis to even splitthickness or full thickness wounds. Conclusion: Depending on the study objective, a number of models exist to study wound healing in humans. These models provide efficient and reliable results to evaluate treatment modalities. I N VITRO studies and animal models have provided useful information for many breakthroughs and medical advances. However, these are not always appropriate and in many cases are inadequate for discovering the actual pathology responsible. While animal models are suitable for many skin disorders and diseases, they do have their limitations when wound healing is being investigated. The complex biological pathway that occurs during wound healing is not always mirrored in animal models and human models need to be considered. In the case of chronic wound pathology, human models are not always good predictors but they do provide a good understanding of acute wound pathology. Because of the difficulty in obtaining suitable volunteers with chronic wounds and incorporating them into a study, human acute wound models provide the best opportunity to understand the wound healing process and the performance of different products that assist and promote wound healing. This paper evaluates the different wound healing models and discusses the potential for these models to be suitable predictors of wound healing.