Murine Models of Intestinal Anastomoses

Wound healing is a physiological process that is essential to the reestablishment of homeostasis (1 -4 ). It is generally accepted that wound repair is an immune-mediated event (5 ) that involves a number of cell types such as macrophages, neutrophils, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and keratinocytes, along with a complex and exquisitely choreographed interaction of wound growth factors (1 ,2 ,4 ,6 ,7 ). While there have been significant advances in our understanding of wound repair, there are still major gaps in our knowledge of the reparative process. Specifically, the receptors, cell-surface interactions, and intracellular signaling processes critical to wound repair have not been fully deciphered. Over the last decade, there has been a rapid evolution of techniques that can be employed to decipher the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in diverse physiological processes including microarrays, macroarrays, multiplexed polymerase chain reaction, and surface plasmon resonance.