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E-Book 2nd Congress

  • Evaluation of the effect of leech saliva on infectious opened wound healing with Pseudomonas aeroginosa in rat
  • Armine Rafie Anarkouli,1 Sahar Ghaffari Khaligh,2,* Hamid Staji,3 Hamid Reza Moslemi,4
    1. Semnan University
    2. Semnan University
    3. Semnan University
    4. Semnan University


  • Introduction: wound infection control and improvement of wound healing process are important issues in wound management. Leech saliva has antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties that can improve the wound healing process.
  • Methods: This study was conducted on 60 male rats( 15 animals in 4 groups). Skin wounds with diameter of 1cm were made on the dorsal region of rats and infected with a suspension containing 106 CFU/ml of Pseudomonas aeroginosa . Then the groups separately were treated with euserin ointment, nitrofurazone 0/2% ointment and 5% leech saliva ointment( 95gr euserin and 5gr leech saliva). The control group didn’t receive any therapy. The treatment of the groups was renewed every 48h for 21 days. Then, 5 rats from each group were euthanized on days 7, 14, 21 and sterile samples were taken from them for microbial and histopathological investigations.
  • Results: after 21 days, epithelialization, reduction of fibroblast concentration, collagen formation and reduction of inflammation in leech saliva group were better than euserin and control groups and had a significant difference with them ( P<0/05) and didn’t have a significant difference with nitrofurazone group (P>0/05). Angiogenesis was observed more in leech saliva group and had a significant difference with nitrofurazone group, whereas didn’t have a significant difference with control and euserin groups. in leech saliva group, a significant decrease in bacterial population was observed compared to control and euserin groups, whereas leech saliva group didn’t have a significant difference with nitrofurazone group.
  • Conclusion: The study results showed that leech saliva has anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties and accelerates epithelialization. Therefore leech saliva can be a suitable alternative to common antibiotics and can be used to control and infectious wound healing with Pseudomonas aeroginosa.
  • Keywords: Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Infectious wound healing, Leech saliva