TY - JOUR ID - 5029 TI - The Effects of Supplemental Zinc and Honey on Wound Healing in Rats JO - Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences JA - IJBMS LA - en SN - 2008-3866 AU - Sazegar, Ghasem AU - Attarzadeh Hosseini, Seyed Reza AU - Behravan, Effat AD - Department of Anatomical Sciences and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran AD - Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran AD - Medical Toxicology Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Mashha, University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Y1 - 2011 PY - 2011 VL - 14 IS - 4 SP - 391 EP - 398 KW - Honey KW - Spectrophotometry KW - tensile strength KW - Wound healing KW - Zinc sulfate DO - 10.22038/ijbms.2011.5029 N2 - Objective(s) Clinicians have long been searching for ways to obtain "super normal" wound healing. Zinc supplementation improves the healing of open wounds. Honey can improve the wound healing with its antibacterial properties. Giving supplemental zinc to normal rats can increase the wound tensile strength. This work is to study the concurrent effects of zinc and honey in wound healing of normal rats. Materials and Methods One hundred and seventy two young rats were randomly divided into four groups: control, zinc-supplement, applied honey, zinc-supplement and applied honey. Two areas of skin about 4 cm2 were excised. The wound area was measured every 2 days. After 3 weeks, all animals were killed and tensile strength of wounds, zinc concentration of blood and histological improvement of wounds were evaluated. The results were analyzed using two-way ANOVA and the mean differences were tested. Results It was found that honey could inhibit the bacterial growth in skin excisions. The tensile strength was increased significantly in the second to fourth groups at 21st day (P< 0.001). Also there was a significant increase in tensile strength at the same time in the fourth group. The results of the histological study showed a considerable increase in the collagen fibers, re-epithelialization and re-vascularization in the second to fourth groups. Conclusion The results of the present study indicate that zinc sulfate could retard re-epithelialization, but when used with natural honey (administered topically) it could have influent wound healing in non-zinc-deficient subjects as well. UR - https://ijbms.mums.ac.ir/article_5029.html L1 - https://ijbms.mums.ac.ir/article_5029_b3174b5d3257f1c27bbb3245716d9adc.pdf ER -