Topical Application of Curcumin Augments Healing of Deep Dermal Excision Wound of Mice Exposed To Whole-Body Gamma Radiation

Abstract

Exposures of wounds to ionizing radiations have been found to prolong the healing and also cause defective healing of irradiated wounds. Although, the descriptions of wound care techniques have been found in some of the oldest archeological findings, little attention has been given to capitalize on the conservative wound therapies in the treatment of irradiated wounds. Therefore, the present study was designed to enunciate the effect of topical application of 0.5, 2, 5 and 10 % curcumin ointment on wound contraction and mean wound healing time of excision skin wound in mice whole-body exposed to 6 Gy γ-radiations. The topical application of curcumin ointment increased the wound contraction and reduced mean wound healing time by 2.2 days in normal unirradiated wounds. The irradiation of mice to 6 Gy resulted in the retardation in healing of the wounds, whereas topical application of different concentrations of curcumin ointment resulted in a concentration dependent rise in the wound contraction at different post-irradiation times and a maximum wound contraction was detected in the wounds receiving topical application of 7% curcumin twice a day. A similar effect was observed in the mean wound healing time, which showed a reduction of 1.5 days for 5% curcumin ointment. Observations demonstrated that topical application of curcumin twice daily until complete healing of wound significantly improved contraction of irradiated wound and decreased the mean healing time.