ABSTRACT

To assess the effect of topical application of honey on wound healing in diabetic mice

Twenty-seven Swiss mice were used for the study, in which diabetes was induced via streptozotocin. Full-thickness skin defects 1 cm in diameter were created on both sides on the backs of the ani-mals. The defects on the left side comprised the experimental group, whe-reas those on the right side were used as controls. Left-sided defects were treated with honey, while right-sided wounds were treated with isotonic sodium chloride. The mice were sacrificed on days 3, 6, and 9. All wounds were histopathologically evaluated according to the thickness of the granu-lation tissue and the distance of epithelization covered from the normal skin edge into the wound. The wound areas were calculated using 3D-DOCTOR (Trial Version, Able Software Corp., USA) software. A paired-sample t test was used for analysis

When the region treated with honey was compared with the control region on the same animal, the wound area was significantly smaller (Day 3 p<0.001, Day 6 p<0.05, Day 9 p<0.01) and epithelization advancement was significantly greater (Day 3 p<0.05, Day 6 p<0.05, Day 9 p<0.001), but the thickness of the granulation tissues was not significantly different (Day 3, 6, 9 p>0.05).

This study demonstrates that topical application of honey has a positive influence on wound healing, via facilitating wound contraction and epithelization in diabetic mice.