Effects of saffron oral gavage on protection of skin flaps against tissue necrosis and oxidative stress in rats

Introduction: Today, skin flaps are used in many reconstructive surgeries and healing of skin lesions as one of the main methods of treatment. Despite improvements in the fields related to enhancement of skin flap survival, flaps viability and their efficacy are still threatened with issues such as ischemia-reperfusion, oxidative stress, tissue necrosis, and even apoptosis in the affected tissue. Therefore, these threats suggest that research and development areas are needed to increase the survival rate of skin flaps and protect them from mentioned injuries, and efforts should be taken to manage or eliminate these threats. We evaluated the effect of saffron administration, before and after skin flap surgery, on tissue necrosis percentage and oxidative stress in rats. Materials and Methods: Saffron (40 mg/kg/day or 80 mg/kg/day) was administered as gavage for two weeks before and one week after flap surgery in mice. One week after surgery, the percentage of necrosis of the flap (by measuring and dividing the necrotic area over the entire length of the flap, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and catalase (CAT) activity were measured. Results: Treatment with saffron, before and after surgery, in both doses resulted in a decrease in flap necrosis (P<0.01) in comparison to the control group. The level of MDA as an appearance of lipid peroxidation had been reduced. Catalase activity was also increased as an appearance of antioxidant activity (P<0.01). Conclusion: Notably, these data showed improvement of skin flap survival and reduction of oxidative stress by saffron treatment before and after surgery.