Recent Advances in Experimental Burn Models

Abstract

Experimental burn models are essential tools for simulating human burn injuries and exploring the consequences of burns or new treatment strategies. Unlike clinical studies, experimental models allow a direct comparison of different aspects of burns under controlled conditions and thereby provide relevant information on the molecular mechanisms of tissue damage and wound healing, as well as potential therapeutic targets. While most comparative burn studies are performed in animal models, a few human or humanized models have been successfully employed to study local events at the injury site. However, the consensus between animal and human studies regarding the cellular and molecular nature of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), scarring, and neovascularization is limited. The many interspecies differences prohibit the outcomes of animal model studies from being fully translated into the human system. Thus, the development of more targeted, individualized treatments for burn injuries remains a major challenge in this field. This review focuses on the latest progress in experimental burn models achieved since 2016, and summarizes the outcomes regarding potential methodological improvements, assessments of molecular responses to injury, and therapeutic advances.

Full Skin Equivalent Models for Simulation of Burn Wound Healing, Exploring Skin Regeneration and Cytokine Response

“…Research on cellular processes in burn wound healing is generally performed on animals [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Translation to the human situation is, however, difficult due to physiological differences between animals and humans [ 9 , 10 ].…”

“…In addition, in our modern society we strive for innovative, animal-free ways of conducting research [ 11 ]. Human studies, on the other hand, are limited by the absence of baseline values, heterogeneity among patients, and restrictions in the collection of tissue samples [ 6 , 7 ]. Therefore, there is an important demand for alternative models to study burn injuries.…”

Emulgel based on fish skin collagen‐microalgae‐silver increased neovascularization and re‐epithelialization of full thickness burn in rats

“…This could be justified by the inherent methodological limitation of the use of cell monolayers, that do not express the full complexity of interactions that occur in in vivo micro environment, including interaction with others cellular profiles and fibrous matrix. 49,66,67 On the other hand, E1 presented a higher F I G U R E 6 Descriptive microscopic analysis of the full thickness burn wound in rats with different treatments and experimental times (A), and histopathological representation of the criteria adopted for analysis (B): polymorphonuclear (1) and mononuclear (2) inflammatory cells, crust (3), neovascularization (4), fibroblast proliferation (5), and re-epithelialization (6). Histopathological criteria were represented using photomicrographs of the CÀgroup at 14 days.…”

Evaluation of delaying effects of different short‐term dosage regimens of topical ciprofloxacin on corneal ulcer healing in an avian model

“…Since its introduction in 1984 by Ormerod et al (1989), corneal alkali burn injury model has been used especially in rodents and rabbits to study the pathophysiology of corneal burn injuries and also for developing novel therapeutic approaches (Hao & Nourbakhsh, 2021).…”

“…Since its introduction in 1984 by Ormerod et al. ( 1989 ), corneal alkali burn injury model has been used especially in rodents and rabbits to study the pathophysiology of corneal burn injuries and also for developing novel therapeutic approaches (Hao & Nourbakhsh, 2021 ). This model is also used for evaluation of the effects of different agents such as doxycycline hyclate (Perry et al., 1993 ), dexamethasone (Chung et al., 1999 ) and more recently rapamycin (Li et al., 2021 ) among others on corneal ulcer healing.…”