Healing effect of bioactive glass ointment on full-thickness skin wounds

This study aimed to investigate the effect of bioactive glasses on cutaneous wound healing in both normal rats and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Bioactive glass ointments, prepared by mixing the sol-gel bioactive glass 58S (SGBG-58S), nanobioactive glass (NBG-58S) and the melt-derived 45S5 bioactive glass (45S5) powder with Vaseline (V) at 18% weight percentage, were used to heal full thickness excision wounds. Pure V was used as control in this study. Compared to SGBG-58S, NBG-58S consists of relatively dispersible nanoparticles with smaller size. The analysis of wound healing rate and wound healing time showed that bioactive glasses promoted wound healing. The ointments containing SGBG-58S and NBG-58S healed the wounds more quickly and efficiently than the ointment containing 45S5. Histological examination indicated that bioactive glasses promoted the proliferation of fibroblasts and growth of granulation tissue. Immunohistochemical staining showed that the production of two growth factors, VEGF and FGF2, which are beneficial to wound healing, was also stimulated during the healing process. Transmission electron microscope observations showed that fibroblasts in wounds treated with bioactive glasses contained more rough endoplasmic reticula and had formed new capillary microvessels by the seventh day. The effects of SGBG-58S and NBG-58S were better than those of 45S5. All results suggest that bioactive glasses, especially SGBG-58S and NBG-58S, can accelerate the recovery of skin wounds in both normal and diabetes-impaired healing models and have a great potential for use in wound repair in the future.