Analysis Of The Growth Pattern Of Dorsal Spines And Ear Wound Healing In Porcupines

The porcupine is a peculiar looking rodent,famous for the long spines on its back,which has a high economic value.Torn skin is often found in porcupine breeding due to fighting,and after the tear the porcupine has evolved a very unique defense mechanism,with sharp and hard spines on its back.The porcupine has a complex type of hair coat,but porcupine spines are essentially the product of periodic hair follicle growth as well,but as a variation of the hair coat,the morphological differences from the common mammalian hairs are still quite obvious.In this experiment,based on the accumulation of morphological observations,the morphogenesis and function of porcupine dorsal spines,hair follicles and wound healing were further investigated at the developmental level with the help of tissue sectioning,HE staining and other techniques for their histological study.The main conclusions were obtained as follows.1.The study observed that porcupine dorsal spines were of unique types,divided into three types according to color: all-white spines,all-black spines,black-and-white spines,etc.;and two types according to shape and size,i.e.,tiny hairs distributed on the abdomen and sharp spines highly keratinized on the back.The variant hairs make the porcupine have special defense mechanism.2.The study observed that porcupine dorsal spines start to grow from June to July,and the peak growth period was before October,with a growth of 3 cm in a month,accounting for 37.13% of the whole growth period respectively.Its growth cycle started in June and ends in October,i.e.the growth cycle of porcupine dorsal spines was about four months,and they were shed from late April to early May of the following year to completed a growth shedding cycle.3.To investigated the way of scarless healing of porcupine skin wounds,controlled experiments were conducted using penetrating wounds and lacerations on their ears,and data on the healing ability of porcupine ear wounds were investigated using statistical follow-up records,paraffin sections,and HE staining.The results showed that the lacerations were able to heal in a scar-free manner within 60 days,with histological manifestations of adipose tissue,dermis,epidermis,and abundant hair follicle areas.