*4.5. Wound Breaking Strength*

Wounded skin tissue was harvested from WT and *IFN-*γKO mice on Day 14 after wound creation. A strip of this tissue located 5 mm from the center of the wound was excised with a no. 15 surgical blade (Feather Safety Razor Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan). Wound breaking strength was measured using an IMS-001 (Keisei Medical Industrial Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) as previously described [38]. Briefly, each side of the strip was pinched in a clip and the two clips were pulled apart at a constant speed of 3 cm/min until the strip broke. The result was expressed as the tensile force necessary to break the repaired wounds. Tensile force is characterized as tissue fragility and delay of collagen synthesis.
