Efficiency of ozone (O3) therapy on experimental acidic skin burns in rats

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the efficacy of O3 therapy in experimentally induced HF skin burns in rats. A total of 20 healthy male Wistar Albino rats (weighing 250-300 g, aged 16 weeks) were used as the material of the study. They were divided into two groups (as experimental and control groups) of 10 rats which were housed individually and fed ad libitum. Hydrofluoric acid (HF) skin burns were induced in all animals. The ozonized (20 µg O3/mL) liquid vaseline was applied topically for seven days to the experiment group as well as parallelly, a saline solution was applied to the control group. In the histopathologic evaluation, inflammation, vascularization, epithelial regeneration and fibrosis were evaluated. The epithelial proliferation and collagenization were higher and statistically significant in the experimental group, while the infiltration was higher and statistically significant in the control group. As a result of this study, it was observed that ozone plays an important role in the tissue repair process in chemical burns. The increase of fibroblast activation and re-epithelization in the experimental group demonstrated that ozone therapy could be suggested as first aid in HF skin burns. It was concluded that more studies on ozone are needed to shed light on the subject.