*,**Ricardo Luiz Cavalcanti de Albuquerque-Júnior; *André Luiz Santos Barreto; *Jônatas Almeida Pires; *,**Francisco Prado Reis; *,**Sônia Oliveira Lima; ***Maria Amália Gonzaga Ribeiro & **,****Juliana Cordeiro Cardoso
Abstract
Propolis, an apitherapic product widely employed in natural medicine, presents various biological properties, such as bactericidal and anti-inflammatory activities, but only few reports have looked at the Brazilian red propolis variety. Collagen films have been employed to improve wound healing and some studies have investigated the effect of natural products incorporated into these films. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the effect of collagen-based films containing red propolis on wound healing. Therefore, wounds performed in the back of rats were dressed with collagen-based films (G2), and collagen-based films containing red propolis (G3); undressed worked as control (G1). After 3, 7 and 14 days the animals were euthanized, and the wounds were microscopically evaluated. In 7 days, G3 showed switch of the inflammatory profile from acute into chronic, increased plasma cells differentiation, replacement of Type-III for type-I collagen fibers, and better architectural organization of those fibers. Furthermore, a slight tendency for a better epithelization was verified in G3, but it was not statistically significant. Also in 7 days, the microvessels count was higher in G1 than in G2 (p=0.000) and G3 (p=0.001), but similar between the last groups (p=0,15), whereas the microvessels perimeter was higher in G1 than in G2 (p=0.000) and G3 (p=0.002), but equivalent in G2 and G3 (p=0.175) in 14 days. In conclusion, the incorporation of Brazilian red propolis into collagen-based films was able to improve wound healing, probably by modulating the dynamics of the inflammatory evolution and collagen deposition process.
* THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.