Antioxidant Characteristic of Pretreatment Hypericum Perforatum Oil Administration in a Rabbit Model of Palatal Mucosal Injury

Abstract

Objective: This study was aimed to determine the antioxidant and soft tissue wound healing properties ofpretreatment (p) of topical Hypericum perforatum (HP) oil in rabbits.Materials and Methods: Thirty-six New Zealand albino rabbits were randomly classified as p-HP oil (test, n = 18)and p-olive oil (control, n = 18) groups. Each groups of rabbits were topically pretreated with either HP or olive oilbefore the surgery. Gingival biopsies were excised and analyzed for re-epithelialization (RE), and granulation tissuematuration (GTM) and clinical appearance were scored for erythema, epithelial confluence and general woundappearance. Levels of VEGF and FGF-2 were assessed immunohistochemically. Tissue catalase (CAT) andmalondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured using ELISA. All analyses were performed on days 3, 7 and 14 aftersurgery.Results: Higher epithelial confluence (on the 7th day) and general wound appearance scores (on the 7th and 14thdays) were determined in p-HP oil than that of p-olive oil group (p<0.05). On the other hand RE scores did notdiffer between groups (p>0.05). The number of positively stained FGF-2 cells was higher in the test group than thatof the control group (p<0.05), but there were no significant differences between the groups for the number ofpositively stained VEGF vessels. p-HP oil administration increased the tissue CAT levels and reduced the MDAlevels compared to p-olive oil (p<0.05).Conclusions: The results obtained from this study indicated that pretreatment with topical HP oil has antioxidanteffects and may be used to accelerate the secondary wound healing compared to its base, olive oil.