Topical curcumin for the healing of carbon dioxide laser skin wounds in mice

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of topical curcumin on the healing of skin wounds produced by the CO(2) laser in an animal model.

A prospective, randomized study was made of 90 mice assigned to three groups (30 animals per group), with the creation of 6-mm incisions in the skin of the dorsal region by means of the CO(2) laser. A total of 270 wounds were made (3 wounds by animal). No product was applied to the resulting wound in group I (control group); vehicle was applied in group II (5 mg/day by wound); and topical curcumin was applied to the mice in group III (5 mg/day by wound). Re-epithelialization and inflammation of the wounds were measured from histological sections of wounds, after 2, 7, and 14 days.

Two days after production of the wounds, most of the latter showed incomplete re-epithelialization. After 7 days, 73.33% of the wounds treated with curcumin presented re-epithelialization covering the entire wound, with irregular thickness; nevertheless, only 37.50% of the wounds in control group and 41.67% in the vehicle group showed this degree ot re-epithelialization. After 14 days, all the wounds had completed re-epithelization. No significant differences were observed regarding resolution of the inflammatory process in any of the study groups after 2, 7, and 14 days.

This study shows that topical curcumin applied to CO(2) laser-induced skin wounds may be useful, because improved re-epithelialization is observed after 7 days.