The healing effect of a mixture of and animal fat on burn wounds in rats in comparison with sulfadiazine.

Objective: Thermal burn is a serious cause of morbidity and mortality that affects millions of people worldwide. The aim of this experimental study was to investigate the efficacy of (AE) to treat burn wounds in a rat model.

Method: A total of 80 male rats (200-250g) were shaved over the back of the neck (2×3cm) and a second-degree burn wound was induced at this site under general anaesthesia. The rats were then randomly assigned to one of four groups (each n=20) and the burns were treated daily for 14 days as follows: (1) dressed with animal fat; (2) dressed with sulfadiazine; (3) dressed with a mixture of AE and animal fat; (4) no treatment (control). Five rats from each group were sacrificed on days 3, 5, 9 and 14 post-burn and the wounds were evaluated histologically and immunohistochemically for the expression of interleukin (IL)-1 and IL-6.

Results: There was a significant increase at day 3 and decrease on day 5 samples for the expression of IL-1 in the AE plus fat group and IL-6 in the AE plus fat and sulfadiazine groups, compared to the control and fat treatment groups, respectively. Both AE plus fat and sulfadiazine treatments reduced inflammation and granulation tissue formation by day 5 post-burn, while re-epithelialisation commenced by day 9 post-burn. In addition, burns treated with AE plus fat exhibited keratinised epidermis, associated with regular collagen fibres, compared to moderately dense collagen fibres without vascularisation in the sulfadiazine group.

Conclusion: These findings suggested that AE plus fat was superior to sulfadiazine in enhancing burn wound healing in rats.