Sodium ascorbate (SA) and l-ascorbic acid (AA) as modifiers of burn affected skin – A comparative analysis

Abstract

Proper functioning of living organisms requires controlling the factors which govern the level of oxidative stress in the system, that is presence of free radicals at a given, rather low, level and preventing their excess. In this work it is shown that SA and AA active antioxidants, governing the oxidative stress in the wound, modify standard serum solution as well as burn affected necrotic eschar at the molecular structure level. In the case of incubation of skin fragments in SA and AA, the following findings were reported: modification of serum, that is appearance of low molecular weight oligomer bands in AA and recreation of native serum bands in SA. In frozen serum solutions modified by AA FTIR 1759 and 1420-1053 cm-1 bands are observed, whereas in SA FTIR 1603, 1411-1054 and 536 cm-1 bands appear. In the case of modification of the burn affected necrotic eschar in SA and AA - frequency shifts in the fingerprint region 1780-1000 cm-1 can be biomarkers indicating tissue regeneration process under the influence of antioxidants. 1780-1580 cm-1 and 1418-1250 cm-1 regions on the Raman spectra are particularly rich in spectral information. Modification of samples of skin burnt with AA activates the regions of the β-sheet aggregates whereas treatment of the samples with SA ascorbate demonstrates changes which testify to reconstruction of α-helix structure (SAXS studies).