Abstract
BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common metabolic diseases in the world. Studies have shown that nitric oxide (NO) promotes re-epithelialization and stimulates angiogenesis and neovascularization. This study aimed to investigate the effect of exogenous NO on diabetic wound healing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was performed on 63 male BALB/c mice. For type 2 diabetes induction, the animals were fed a high-fat diet followed by a single dose of streptozotocin (STZ) (35 mg/kg) injection intraperitoneally. Acidified nitrite cream was prepared with 3.0% (w/v) sodium nitrite (SN) and 4.5% (w/v) citric acid monohydrate, respectively, in the aqueous cream base. Histopathological examinations were performed using hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome staining. RESULTS: The results showed that in the silver sulfadiazine-treated group, the size of the wound surface on the 7(th) day was significantly (P < 0.05) reduced compared to the control group. There was a significant (P < 0.005) decrease in the size of the wound in the SN-treated group on days 7 and 14 compared to the control group. The results of histopathological studies also showed that re-epithelialization and granulation in the diabetic wound site increased in the groups treated with acidified nitrite cream compared to other groups. CONCLUSION: The use of topical acidified nitrite cream increases the speed of wound healing and it accelerates the healing of diabetic wounds in mice by causing a delay in the inflammation process and increasing the speed of re-epithelialization.