Comparative inflammatory cytokine responses (IL-12 and IFN-γ) to conventional and non-medical suture materials in a...

Suture materials act as foreign bodies capable of modulating host immune responses and influencing wound healing outcomes. In resource-limited veterinary settings, non-medical threads are frequently used for cutaneous closure; however, their immunological effects remain poorly characterized. This study evaluated systemic and local inflammatory cytokine responses to commonly used non-medical suture materials compared with standard silk sutures in a caprine model. Twenty Kano Brown bucks were allocated to four groups (n = 5 per group), they underwent vasectomy followed by skin closure using embroidery thread, cobbler's thread, hair-braiding thread, or silk sutures. Serum and wound-fluid concentrations of interleukin-12 (IL-12) and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) were quantified using goat-specific ELISA at defined postoperative intervals and analysed using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. All suture materials induced significant postoperative increases in IL-12 and IFN-γ, consistent with physiological inflammatory responses to tissue injury. Silk sutures exhibited comparatively higher cytokine concentrations and delayed peak responses, whereas non-medical threads demonstrated earlier cytokine peaks and lower or more rapidly resolving inflammatory profiles. Temporal effects were significant for both cytokines (P < 0.01), while differences among non-medical materials were not significant (P > 0.05). Wound-level cytokine dynamics paralleled serum findings, indicating more sustained inflammatory signalling in the silk group. These findings suggest that non-medical suture materials do not elicit exaggerated IL-12 or IFN-γ responses relative to silk and may be immunologically comparable for cutaneous closure in resource-constrained veterinary practice.