Incision wounds were made on the outer ear of rats and two biopsies were taken for examination after different survival times. In each case a biopsy was made of vital tissue and a second of postmortem tissue after refrigeration for 24 h. The biopsies were exposed to a solution containing the RNA precursor 3H-cytidine for 1 h, washed and fixed in formalin. Sections 5 microns thick were then autoradiographically prepared and automatically evaluated using Quantimet 920. The intravital specimens showed a significant increase in 3H-cytidine incorporation in the basal cell layer after survival times of 10-24 h. No increase was seen in the stratum corneum, corium or cartilage tissue. The investigated distance from the wound margin did not have any significant bearing on the results. The 3H-cytidine incorporation rate in postmortem tissue was practically identical with that of vital tissue, but no increase was observed in the rate of RNA synthesis in the basal cells as a function of the age of the wound. It may therefore be assumed that this method provides no additional information as to the age of wounds in postmortem examination.
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