Summary
The process of wound healing in Lymnaea stagnalis was studied by light and electron microscopy. Snails were wounded by making incisions in the skin.
The observations showed that the wounds are closed by muscular contraction and by formation of thrombi of blood amoebocytes. These thrombi form a large amoebocyte plug. During the first 72 hrs after incision thin tubules (diameter 175–225 Å) were observed between the amoebocytes in the plug. Possibly these tubules represent a blood clotting protein. The round amoebocytes constituting the plug can be regarded as normal blood amoebocytes. First, ultrastructurally they closely resemble the amoebocytes of the circulating blood. Second, not only blood amoebocytes but also plug amoebocytes of snails injected with India ink before incision contained ink particles, indicating that the cells are of one type. Apparently due to phagocytosis of cell debris the number of lysosomes in plug amoebocytes increased during the first days after incision.
Eighteen to twenty four hrs after incision the first signs of differentiation of round plug amoebocytes into flattened cells were observed. Between these cells collagen was seen from 3–5 days after incision and onwards. It is suggested that these flattened amoebocytes produce collagen fibrils. These cells are structurally different from collagen producing fibroblasts and from muscle cells of the surrounding connective tissue. Transformations of amoebocytes into these two latter cell types were not found.
Ninety days after incision the connective tissue in the wound area is still different from that on non-injured sites.
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The authors wish to thank Dr. H. H. Boer for his guidance and valuable criticism in the preparation of the manuscript, Prof. Dr. J. Lever for reading the manuscript, Mr. G. Elisée-Désir for technical assistance, Miss B. Plesch for correcting the English text and Miss I. Eijkhout for typing the manuscript.
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Sminia, T., Pietersma, K. & Scheerboom, J.E.M. Histological and ultrastructural observations on wound healing in the freshwater pulmonate Lymnaea stagnalis . Z.Zellforsch 141, 561–573 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307125
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307125