ABSTRACT

Wound healing is a complex repairing process. Melatonin which is secreted in darkness at night is a molecule that has both antioxidant and systemic effects. In our study, by making pinealectomy, we aimed to investigate how chronically impaired basal secretion of melatonin affected wound healing process. In this study 14 Sprague-Dawley male rats were used. These rats were separated into two groups, and pinealectomy was performed to one of these groups. Six excisional skin wounds were opened on dorsal part of all rats under anesthesia 15 days after pinealectomy. Wound tissues were excised under anesthesia after the measurement of wound area eight days later. Measurements of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and hydroxyproline (OH-proline) were made in these tissues. Excision of the pineal body caused increase in MDA levels in the wound tissues (p<0.05), whereas it caused no differences in the activities of SOD and GSH-Px enzymes. The level of OH-prolin was found to be decreased in the wound tissues of the rats performed pinealectomy (p<0.05). Similarly, the wound area was found to increase significantly in this group (p<0.05). Our study has demonstrated that basal secretion of melatonin is necessary and important for wound healing. Positive effects of melatonin during wound healing can derive from that its strengthening effect on antioxidant system against oxidative stress which increases during healing process.

Keywords: Melatonin, oxidative stress, pinealectomy, wound healing