Epidermal nuclear elongation is one of the most important signs for the diagnosis of electrical injury. In this study, we investigated the mechanism responsible for this phenomenon by comparing the findings from
burn injuries and those from
contusions. Electrical and
burn injuries were made in the dorsal skin of rats using energy ranging from 100 to 790 joules for electrical injury, and 170-690 joules for
burn injury.
Contusions were also made by compressing the skin with a vice. In electrical and
burn injuries, the dermis under the epidermal elongated nuclei was homogeneous and without empty spaces between
collagen bundles and the number of dermal fibroblasts per 0.01 mm2 below the damaged epidermis decreased significantly (P < 0.05). The incidence of this change correlated with the depth of denatured dermal
collagen fibres and in both types of
injuries, dermal cells had no nuclear antigenicity for
ubiquitin. The width of the injured epidermis with nuclear elongation decreased significantly (P < 0.05) and the elongated nuclei were parallel to the basal membrane. In electrical injury however, nuclear elongation occurred more frequently near the external root sheath. Nuclear elongation of fibroblasts and external root sheath cells was also found, but those of sebaceous gland cells were not detected. Epidermal elongated nuclei were also found in
contusions. The evidence strongly suggests that epidermal nuclear elongation in electrical and
burn injuries is due to dermal expansion by heat.