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Acceleration of wound healing in young and aged rats
Abstract
Wound healing in the aged is delayed. A 6 mm punch biopsy wound heals in 13 days in a 3 month old rat, but takes 21 days to heal in a 2 year old rat. It is our belief that this impairment in healing may be due in part to a macrophage defect present in senescence, and that macrophage activation or supplementation may yield an acceleration in wound closure. This thesis focuses on the ability of Acemannan (ACM), a complex plant carbohydrate and macrophage stimulator, to accelerate wound healing in both young and aged rats. Studies were conducted using both ACM injection, and macrophage supplementation to the wound site. Acemannan injection to the wound site was found to accelerate wound healing in young and old rats. Overall time to complete closure decreased and average Cumulative Wound Area (CWA) exposed over the course of healing in both young and old animals was significantly (u.<O.05) reduced. There was no significant difference between young and old ACM-treated wounds, but there was a significant (CC<0.05) difference between the CWA seen in old control versus young control wounds. Likewise, a single injection of peritoneal macrophages to the wound site was found to accelerate wound healing in young and old rats. Again, there was no significant difference between the young and old treated wounds, but there was a significant (cc<0.05) difference between the CWA seen in old control versus young control wounds. Overall time to complete closure decreased and average CWA exposed over the course of healing in both young and old animals was significantly (cc<0.05) reduced. ACM stimulation did not significantly improve the ability of peritoneal macrophages to accelerate wound healing. However, ACM-stimulated killed macrophages were significantly different (cc<0.05) from all other treatments, and exhibited decreased wound closure and CWA over that seen in the control wounds. Killed, untreated macrophages were not effective. Additionally, we observed changes in the cytokine MRNA production for TGF-P, TNF-ot, and IL-6 in young and old macrophages stimulated with ACM. The acceleration seen in these studies strengthens the case of ACM as a wound healing agent, and encourages further studies into the basis of its activity.
Description
Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references: p. 45-53.
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Citation
Maxwell, Bryan Douglas (1996). Acceleration of wound healing in young and aged rats. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1996 -THESIS -M395.
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