Abstract
Diabetes, a highly prevalent disease that affects 9.3% of Americans, often leads to severe complications and slow wound healing. Preclinical studies have suggested that low level light therapy (LLLT) can accelerate wound healing in diabetic subjects, but significant improvements must be made to overcome the absence of persuasive evidence for its clinical use. We demonstrate here that LLLT can be combined with topical Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to heal wounds in diabetic mice significantly faster than LLLT alone, CoQ10 alone, or controls. LLLT followed by topical CoQ10 enhanced wound healing by 68~103% in diabetic mice in the first week and more than 24% in the second week compared with untreated controls. All wounds were fully healed in two weeks following the dual treatment, in contrast to only 50% wounds or a fewer being fully healed for single or sham treatment. The accelerated healing was corroborated by at least 50% higher hydroxyproline levels, and tripling cell proliferation rates in LLLT and CoQ10 treated wounds over controls. The beneficial effects on wound healing were probably attributed to additive enhancement of ATP production by LLLT and CoQ10 treatment. The combination of LLLT and topical CoQ10 is safe and convenient, and merits further clinical study.
Highlights
Diabetes, a highly prevalent disease that affects 9.3% of Americans, often leads to severe complications and slow wound healing
level laser therapy (LLLT) followed with topical Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) resulted in 68~103% improvement in wound healing during the first week and more than 24% in the following week
The difference in the percentages of wound healing was significant between LLLT+ CoQ10 and only CoQ10 groups at all experimental days tested, which held the truth between LLLT+ CoQ10 and only LLLT group on day 3 and day 13 (p < 0.05), but not on day 7 (Fig. 1A–C)
Summary
A highly prevalent disease that affects 9.3% of Americans, often leads to severe complications and slow wound healing. Small sores are readily healed in healthy individuals but frequently develop into deep ulcers, leading to infections of underlying tissues and bones that sometimes necessitate amputation in diabetic patients Treatment of these chronic wounds in diabetic patients mainly relies on conventional wound bed preparation, mechanical and surgical debridement, and antibiotic therapy to battle infections[4,5]. One event suspected to contribute significantly to wound healing is the absorption of far red or near infrared light (600–1100 nm) by the redox active metal centers of cytochrome c oxidase, known as complex IV of the electron transport chain at mitochondria[12] Such absorption is thought to increase www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Because LLL and CoQ10 target different complexes in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, these two modalities may additively accelerate diabetic wound healing
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