Effects of Pentoxifylline on the healing of irradiated wounds in pig skin

Background: This study was designed to investigate the efficacy of Pentoxifylline (PTX) in the treatment of irradiated wounds. Materials and Methods: Ten female pigs of the Large White strain were used in these investigations. Six skin fields, 4 * 4 cm and separated from each other by 4 cm, were marked out on each flank and those on left flank were irradiated with 18Gy single dose of 250 kV X-rays. The animals were then randomly allocated to one of three groups. Ten weeks after irradiation a 2 * 2 cm surgical wound was produced, by removing the skin up to facia level, at the centre of the original skin fields. This was done on both irradiated (left flank) and unirradiated control (right flank) fields. Two groups of animals were treated by daily oral gavaging, with 13.3mg/kg/day PTX dissolved in 10 ml water while a group of control animals received only 10 ml water by oral gavage as placebo. PTX treatment started either two weeks prior to wounding or at the day of wounding. The progression of the healing of excision wounds were evaluated periodically by assessment of wound contraction. Results and Conclusion: Overall, irradiated wounds healed much slower than unirradiated wounds. While PTX treatment had no effect on the healing rate of unirradiated wounds it appeared that treating the animals with PTX delayed the healing of irradiated wounds. This was true whether PTX treatment started two weeks prior to or at the time of wounding. Iran . J. Radiat. Res., 2004 2 (1): 1-7