a histopathologic study of effects of olive oil plus lime water on third-degree burn in mouse model

objective- the objective of this study was to compare effects of olive oil and lime water combination with silver sulfadiazine in third-degree burn healing. design- randomized experimental study. animals- sixty-three adult male bulb/c mice weighing 25±5 g. procedures- the mice were anesthetized with an interaperitoneal injection of ketamine 10% and xylazine 2% combination and the third-degree burn wound was created in the area of 1×1 cm at the dorsum of the animals using an innovated electrical device. there were three groups of 21 as follow: group i – negative control; which received the topical normal saline solution, group ii – positive control; with the daily topical application of silver sulfadiazine ointment, and group iii – treatment; which received topical olive oil plus lime water, daily. each group was subdivided into three subgroups and topical treatments or saline were applied to each subgroup for 7, 14, and 21 days, respectively. no other dressing was used. the mice of each subgroup were sacrificed on days 7, 14, and 21 and hematoxylin-eosin (h e) stained slides were prepared. histopathologic evaluations included epidermal thickness, secondary infection, and percentage of collagen, ground substance, fibroblast and blood vessels. results- group ii showed significantly less secondary infection, and secondary infection in group iii was significantly reduced compared to group i (p 0.05). the epidermal thickness of group iii had a significant difference with group ii at 2nd week. both group ii and iii showed more collagen synthesis at 2nd week compared to group i. this was also true about ground substance. group iii had more angiogenesis at 2nd week compared to others, but ultimately this difference was diminished (p 0.05). conclusions and clinical relevance- despite lime water had some cytotoxic effects, combining with olive oil reduced these undesired effects. thus, the combination might be beneficial in third-degree burn wounds in mice compared to routinely-used silver sulfadiazine therapy.