In every skin section an area just beneath the epidermis at the incised area was
randomly selected. Thereafter, three other consecutive areas moving towards the deep
dermis were selected. An eyepiece graticule with 24 squares with known dimensions
was used for cell counting. The cells present in all 24 squares were counted at constant
objective magnifi cation of ×40. The cells present in each square were counted three times for accuracy and the average cell count was calculated as cells per mm2. Duplicate counts were carried out by two observers independently (ORYAN and SHOUSHTARI, 2008). The
number of fi broblast, macrophages, lymphocytes and blood vessels were counted and
their mean and standard deviations were calculated.