Clinical and Histological Effects of N-acetyl Cysteine Intraperitoneal Injection on Primary Wound Healing in Rabbits

Abstract

Aims: This study aims to investigate the effect of ten days of intraperitoneal injection of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) on full thickness wound healing of the skin, using a rabbit model. Materials and Methods: Thirty - male rabbits were used to conduct this study. A full – thickness linear incision, (10 mm) was induced on the back of each rabbit and divided into two groups. Group 1: no treatment (control group) and group 2 (NACtreated group) was injected intraperitoneally ten days before wound induction. Animals were randomly divided into three groups according to sacrificing date (1, 3 and 7) days. The site of intervention was assessed clinically and histopathologically on the 1st, 3rd, and 7th day of the experimental procedure. Results: The clinical observation of tissue type revealed that there were significant differences in type of tissue at 1 and 3 days at pvalue ≤ 0.05, and the wound healing was converted to granulation tissue without slough and necrotic tissue formation. There was no significant difference at 7 days compared to the control group. The histopathological finding showed that there were significant differences in angiogenesis and granulation tissue formation between the two groups at 1 and 3 days at p-value ≤ 0.05, while there was no significant difference at 7 days. There was a significant difference of reepithelization at 3 and 7 days at p-value ≤ 0.05. Conclusions: Ten days of intraperitoneally N-acetyl cysteine injection before surgical procedures will significantly enhance the process of primary wound healing of rabbit skin on secondary wounds

Keywords

• n-acetyl cysteine
• intraperitoneal
• wound healing
• epithelialization