Abstract: Skin wound healing is an organized process for keeping cutaneous integrity, which needs the complicated interaction between inflammatory cells and biochemical mediators. Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms , as important factors during skin wound healing, synthesize nitric oxide (NO) which may be involved in the whole event of skin wound healing and play important roles in cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, angiogenesis, matrix deposits and remolding. Furthermore, NO also exerts effects in some cutaneous diseases. In the present paper, the expressions of NOS isoforms and the roles of NO during skin wound healing were reviewed with references to the advances in the studies on skin wound healing. It is suggested that nitric oxide synthases, play significant parts during skin wound healing, which is worthy of further investigation.

Key words: nitric oxide synthase, nitric oxide, skin, wound healing