[Study on the therapeutic effect and potential mechanisms of astaxanthin electrospun patches on oral mucosal ulcers in rats].

Purpose: To investigate the effect and underlying mechanism of astaxanthin electrospun patches in treating oral ulcers in rats.

Methods: An oral ulcer model of rats was established by mechanical trauma, then the rats were randomly divided into astaxanthin electrospun patch group, chitosan patch group, metronidazole patch group and blank control group. The ulcer healing time and the area healing rate of each group were observed. The pathological changes of ulcer tissues in each group were observed and scored by H-E staining 2, 4 and 6 days after drug administration. Meanwhile, the toxic effects of the drugs on the rat organs were detected. The changes in the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in ulcer tissues were detected by WST-1 and TBA methods. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and Interleukin 6 (IL-6) were analyzed through immunohistochemistry experiments.

Results: Compared with the other groups, the astaxanthin electrospun patch could significantly accelerate the reduction of the ulcer area, promote its pathological healing, reduce the expression levels of TNF-α and IL-6, and significantly decrease the content of MDA in the ulcer tissue while increasing the activity of SOD. Six days after administration, there were significant differences in the levels of SOD and MDA compared with the blank control group and the metronidazole patch group(P＜0.05), while there was no significant difference compared with the chitosan patch group(P＞0.05).

Conclusions: The astaxanthin electrospun patches have better performance in promoting ulcer healing, which may be related to their strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It is expected to provide a natural marine preparation with better efficacy for the treatment of oral ulcers.