Experimental Research on the Effect of Amiodarone on the Healing of Skin Wounds in Rats

Abstract

At the level of skin wounds, an electrical potential difference develops between the edges of the wound and the cen-ter of the wound, which favors the migration of cells in the process of their healing. Cells migrate in an electric field because they have a certain electrical membrane potential. This potential is due to differences in the trans-membrane electrochemical gradient. The transmembrane electrochemical gradient is due to the migration of sodium, potassium and calcium ions into the corresponding ion channels. If this is the case, the modification of the func-tionality of these ion channels should influence the membrane potential and, as a consequence, the wound healing process. In this experiment, we aimed to investigate to what extent amiodarone influences the wound healing pro-cess. Amiodarone blocks several types of ion channels but at different concentrations: at low concentrations it blocks only potassium channels, at medium concentrations potassium and calcium channels, and at high concentra-tions it blocks potassium, calcium and sodium channels. We worked on rats that were given experimental skin le-sions and evaluated the influence of the healing of these lesions upon the topical administration of amiodarone in 3 concentrations, 200nM, 2000nM and 200000nM, compared to an untreated group and a group treated with benzyl alcohol, the amiodarone solvent. In our experimental conditions, low concentration amiodarone promoted wound healing both in terms of duration of healing and also in terms of speed of healing. This means that blocking some ions, possibly potassium channels, might promote wound healing.