Tobacco ethanol extract accelerates wound healing through anti-inflammation and promoting angiogenesis

Wound repair remains a significant challenge in the field of regenerative medicine. Notably, while numerous studies have investigated the effects of isolated nicotine or chlorogenic acid, the systematic evaluation of tobacco ethanol extract (TEE) on cutaneous wound healing has remained uncharted territory. Therefore, this study aims to systematically explore TEE's multifaceted effect on wound healing.

The hepatorenal toxicity of 5% TEE was evaluated in 6-7-week-old ICR mice. Subsequently, full-thickness 6 mm wounds were created, and images were captured on days 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12. Tissues were collected for H&E staining, Masson trichrome staining, and immunohistochemistry to assess wound healing.

The TEE we prepared showed little hepatorenal toxicity (p > 0.05). By day 12, the wound closure rate in the TEE group reached 95.26%, significantly higher than that in the vehicle group (89.20%, p < 0.05). Histopathological analysis demonstrated that TEE reduced neutrophil infiltration in the wound tissues, accelerated granulation tissue formation, and increased collagen content by 20.99% compared to the vehicle group (p < 0.05). Immunohistochemical staining revealed that on day 6, the positive areas of IL-6 and TNF-α in the TEE group were 5.91% and 4.87% lower than those in the vehicle group (p < 0.05), respectively. On day 9, CD31 expression in the TEE group (8.58%) was significantly higher than that in the vehicle group (5.54%) (p < 0.05).

This study reveals that TEE accelerates wound healing, providing new insights into effective topical therapies for skin wounds while highlighting the potential for tobacco waste valorization.