Nitric oxide accelerates the recovery from burn wounds

A full-thickness burn wound model was used to evaluate the effects of a topically applied gel-based nitric oxide donor on wound healing in rats. The histological study demonstrated that the nitric oxide (NO) application significantly promoted re-epithelization that resulted in a fast recovery of burn wound. The histological sections further revealed that inflammatory cell infiltration in the NO-treated group was significantly increased in comparison to the control group. The enhanced accumulation of inflammatory cells resulted in a higher expression of myeloperoxidase (MPO) that was detected with imunoblotting. An immunohistochemistry study with CD31, a specific marker for endothelial cells, indicated that NO treatment markedly stimulated angiogenesis. Evaluation of collagen synthesis by immunohistochemistry with procollagen antibody demonstrated a significantly increased collagen synthesis in NO-treated wound bed. We concluded that NO treatment promoted re-epithelialization and wound closure by means of enhanced inflammatory cell infiltration, and that it promoted angiogenesis and facilitated collagen synthesis in the wound bed.