ABSTRACT
Background & Objective: A burn wound is sterile immediately after injury, but opportunistic bacteria colonize the wound within 48 to 72 hours after the burn, causing delayed or failed burn wound healing. In addition, the presence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens doubles the treatment problems. Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) is a well-known antibacterial and healing agent that could be used topically to treat burn wounds. Case Series Presentation: This clinical trial study (Case Series) was performed on 20 patients with deep second-degree burns. Patients had bilateral wounds; the wound on one side of the body was considered as control (treated with silver sulfadiazine) and the other side of the body as treatment (treated with bacteria-free supernatants (BFS) of L. plantarum). The wounds were evaluated by microbial assessments and assessments related to healing. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Staphylococcus aureus were isolated from 4 (22.2%), 0%, and 2 (11.1%) of wounds treated with L. plantarum on the fifth day of the treatment, respectively. Furthermore, 12 (66.7%) of wounds treated with L. plantarum were free from bacteria. The need for skin grafting was the same in both treatment and control groups, but graft rejection in the group treated with L. plantarum was (0%) (P=0.02). Conclusion: Regarding eliminating or reducing infection and wound healing, bacteria-free supernatants of L. plantarum can be considered a possible topical treatment option in the case of second-degree burn wounds.
ABSTRACT
Background: Infection of burn wounds is one of the most important problems in the world. Lactobacillus plantarum is known for burn wound healing because of the immunomodulatory and anti-microbial roles. This study was performed to compare the effects of L. plantarum and imipenem - alone and in combination - on infected burn wound healing. Methods: Burn wounds were experimentally induced on 50 rats in three test groups (germ and supernatant of L. plantarum ) and two control groups (n=10 each) and were inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. During a 14-day period, wounds in all groups were daily treated topically. The data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey-Kramer and LSD. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The mean size of the wound on day 14 after the treatment in the probiotic group was significantly lower than the control and the supernatant treated groups (p<0.05). The percentage of wound healing was significantly higher in the probiotic pellet treated group compared to the imipenem and the supernatant groups (by Anova test: 69.58%, p=0.022). The mean leukocyte count in the probiotic pellet group (12110) and supernatant group (13650) was significantly higher than the imipenem group (7670) (p=0.002 and 0.001, respectively). Wound cultures revealed that the percentage of cases where the pathogens had no growth was significantly different among the comparison groups. In all three test groups, P. aeruginosa was completely eliminated in comparison to the positive control group (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results of our study showed that L. plantarum and its by-products promote wound healing and can be used as an alternative to antibiotics to treat ulcer infections caused by resistant bacteria.
ABSTRACT
Systemic sclerosis is a female predominant, a fibrotic autoimmune disease in which disturbance in tissue homeostasis and cell turnover including cell apoptosis are central events in pathogenesis. Sex hormones are known as the important players in sexual dimorphism of autoimmune diseases and in tissue homeostasis. Progesterone influences autoimmune disease via its immunomodulatory effect or by its direct action on parenchymal cell function. On the other hand, this hormone impacts tissue homeostasis by acting on cell apoptosis in a different situation. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of progesterone on cellular apoptosis of skin and lung tissues in a mouse model of scleroderma. Four group of mice were involved in this study with 10 mice in each. The fibrotic model was induced by daily subcutaneous injection of bleomycin for 28 days. One week after initiation of fibrosis induction, mice received subcutaneous progesterone alone or with bleomycin for 21 days. Control group received only Phosphate buffered saline PBS. After 28 days, under lethal anesthesia skin and lung tissues were harvested for histological assessment and hydroxyproline measurement. Apoptosis in tissue sections was detected by TUNEL assay technique. Bleomycin administration induced fibrosis in skin and lung tissues. Severe apoptosis was seen in skin and lung tissues of the bleomycin-treated group (p<0.001 in the skin and p<0.05 in the lung). Progesterone injection either in the skin (p>0.05) or in the lung (p>0.05) did not alter apoptosis in bleomycin-treated animals. Our data confirm the role of apoptosis in the pathogenesis of fibrosis in this model; however, progesterone does not affect cellular apoptosis in skin and lung tissues of bleomycin-injured animals.
