Permeability of thermally damaged skin II: immediate influences of branding at 60°C on hairless mouse skin permeability

Dry heat burns of incrementally increased duration (15–960 seconds) have been administered to freshly sacrificed mice with a thermostated branding iron maintained at 60°C. The association between extent of burn damage (shallow to deep tissue damage) and permeability was studied using water, methanol, ethanol, butanol, hexanol, and octanol as permeants. Thermal effects were measured as the ratio of a burned surface permeability to a normal skin section permeability in the same animal. Branding for brief times produced similar effects as scalding at 60°C for equivalent durations, 1–5 to 2-fold increases for water, methanol, and ethanol and 3-to 4-fold increases for the higher alkanols. There appears to be a gradual, steady increase in permeability with duration of burning. Permeability alteration was both qualitatively and quantitatively analogous to that seen previously with burns inflicted with 60°C water, indicating that at this temperature the method of burning is not a principal factor in altering permeability of the tissue.