Abstract
BACKGROUND: The present study focused on burning as one of the main causes of mortality with detrimental economic and social effects in the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of collagen-chitosan gel extracted from Scomberomorus guttatus and shrimp skin in the treatment of second degree burn healing among rats. MATERIALS & METHOD: To fulfill the purpose of the study, chitosan and collagen were extracted respectively from shrimp and Scomberomorus guttatus skin waste by the acid-based method and were evaluated by using Pico Tag, SDS-PAGE. The burn wound healing efficiency of marine collagen-chitosan gel was examined in vivo using rats. Three different ratios of collagen and chitosan blend (Col-CH, 1:3, 1:1 and 3:1) were prepared to obtain the most effective Col-CH gel for burn wound healing and were compared to the animals treated with silver sulfadiazine ointment. Healing burn wound was studied by measuring wound surface area with Image J and histopathologic examination was carried out based on the mean of epithelialization, fibroblastic cells, acute and chronic inflammatory cells, angiogenesis, structure collagen and the amount of collagen on days 15 and 25 post-burn. RESULTS: The results of SDS-PAGE indicated that the extracted collagen was type I and it was composed of two α (α(1) and α(2)) chains. Amino acid analysis showed a much higher glaycin content in extracted collagen which amounted to one-third of the total amino. The wound surface measurement showed a significant reduction in wound size in the group treated with Col-CH (3:1) compared to silver-sulfadiazine treated group on 15th and 25th days. Histopathological findings represented a high score in epithelialization, collagen, collagen structure, fibroblast cell and a decrease in inflammatory cells infiltration in Col-CH (3:1) treated group on 25th day. The most obvious finding of the present study is that chitosan-collagen gel (3:1) represented a better efficacy compared to sulfadiazine in burn wound healing on day 25 post-burn.