Skin Wound Healing Potential and Mechanisms of the Hydroalcoholic Extract of Leaves and Oleoresin of <i>Copaifera langsdorffii</i> Desf. Kuntze in Rats

Abstract

The wound healing is a complex process which, sometimes, can be a problem in public health because of the possibility of physical disability or even death. Due to the lack of a gold standard drug in skin wound treatment and aiming at the discovery of new treatments in skin repair and the mechanisms involved in the process, we used oleoresin (OR) from <i>Copaifera langsdorffii</i> and hydroalcoholic extract of the leaves (EH) to treat rat skin wounds. For that, male <i>Wistar</i> rats were divided into groups (<i>n</i> = 8): Lanette, Collagenase, 10% EH, or 10% OR and, after anesthesia, one wound of 2 cm was made in the back of animals. The wounds were treated once a day for 3, 7, or 14 days and the wound areas were measured. The rats were euthanized and skin samples destined to biochemical, molecular, and immunohistochemical analysis. The results showed a macroscopic retraction of the wounds of 10% EH and 10% OR creams and both treatments showed anti-inflammatory activity. Molecular and immunohistochemical results demonstrated the activity of <i>Copaifera langsdorffii</i> creams in angiogenesis, reepithelialization, wound retraction, and remodeling mechanisms.