The effect of chitosan nanosilver dressing versus mesenchymal stem cells on wound healing

Background: Wounds constitute a major worldwide public health problem. Infection is the most common complication of wounds. Surgical wound infection is still a major post-operative problem. New modalities for treating wound infections such as nanotechnology and stem cell therapy have been tried. The available studies investigated the effect of either mesenchymal stem cells or Chitosan nanosilver on wound-healing but they didn’t compare their effects. Also, they used biochemical, vascular or immunological studies but not histological ones.Aim: to compare the effect of chitosan nanosilver dressing with the intradermal injection of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) on wound healing.Methods: 40 adult female albino rats were equally randomized into 4 groups: group I served as control, in group II, surgical wound was induced. In group III chitosan nanosilver dressing was used after wound induction and group IV received intradermal injection of 1x 106mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow after wound induction. All animals were scarified after seven days by decapitation. Prepared sections were subjected to histological (Haematoxylin and Eosin stain, Masson's trichrome stain, periodic acid-Schiff reaction, immunohistochemical stain for proliferating cell nuclear antigen - PCNA and immunoflourescent techniques for labeling mesenchymal stem cells).Results: Wound group showed complete shedding of epidermis, decreased mean optical density of collagen fibers, negative PAS reaction and negative PCNA immunostainning. Chitosan nanosilver dressing group showed significant increase in the mean epidermal thickness, collagen optical density, and the positive PCNA immunoreactivity compared to the mesenchymal stem cells group.Conclusion: Both chitosan nanosilver dressing and mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) promoted wound healing, but the non-invasive chitosan nanosilver dressing had better and faster wound healing effect.Keywords: Wound healing, Nanosilver, Wound infection, immunofluorescence, mesenchymal stem cell