Triticum aestivum in open skin wounds: cytotoxicity and collagen histopathology

Phytoterapic compounds have been used in wound healing for many centuries. Nowadays, scientific evidences of phytotherapeutics is a requirement of the legislation. The scientific literature notes the need for healing topics yielding scars that are both aesthetically appealing and resistant. We aimed to evaluate the cytotoxicity of several doses of T. aestivum extract (2 mg mL-1, 4 mg mL-1, 6 mg mL-1, 8 mg mL-1 and 10 mg mL-1) in a fibroblast cell line and the healing process in an in vivo experimental model (New Zealand rabbits). For this, MTT test in 3T6 cells was performed in duplicates using MEM (0 mg ml-1) as negative control. Cell viability was calculated as: absorbance average in treatments/absorbance average in controls x 100. In vivo test was performed in 78 skin wounds in rabbits that were treated with 2 mg ml-1and 10 mg ml-1 of T. aestivum and non-ionic cream for 21 days. After this period, it was evaluated the histology using picrosorius and Gomori’s trichrome staining. Statistical analysis was evaluated using T test (Graphpad) for cytotoxicity assay, Fischer test for the gomori trichrome test (Grahpad) and Kruskal-Wallis (Statistic 9.0) for picrosirius test. The in vitro test resulted in cytotoxicity observed at 2mg mL-1 whereas cells were viable at higher doses. On the other hand, it was observed that collagen formation of wounds was more uniform with this dose than with 10mg mL-1 extract in the in vivo study. Thus, we conclude that the 2mg mL-1 T. aestivum aqueous extract dose was more efficient in the in vivo wound healing study, despite its cytotoxic effects in vitro.