Topical Clover Flower Honey Administration Accelerated Wound Healing in Swiss Webster Mice

Clover flower honey is a herbal therapy used as an alternative wound treatment. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of Clover flower honey in accelerating incision wound healing, enhancing reepithelization degree, increasing fibroblast density, and collagen. This was a true experimental research, using 25 mice divided into 5 groups (n=5); positive control group (feracrylum 1%), negative control group (aquadest), 100% honey group, 50% honey group, and 25% honey group. Wound healing activity was measured macroscopically with calipers, dan microscopically through pathological anatomy preparations to observe reepithelization degree and collagen density. This study showed wound incision lengths were different significantly between Clover flower honey 100%, 50%, and 25% compared to aquadest (p ≤ 0.05), and feracrylum 1% (p ≤ 0.05). Reepithelization degree, fibroblast and collagen density measurements between Clover flower honey 100%, 50%, and 25% were different significantly compared with aquadest (p ≤ 0.05), and only the 100% honey group was different significantly with feracrylum 1% (p ≤ 0.05). We concluded topical Clover flower honey administration accelerated wound healing, increased reepithelization degree, fibroblast density, and collagen degree.Keywords : wound healing, reepithelization degree, fibroblast density, collagen density, Clover flower honey

Loading effect of fibroblast-myocyte coupling on resting potential, impulse propagation, and repolarization: insights from a microstructure model

The numerous nonmyocytes present within the myocardium may establish electrical connections with myocytes through gap junctions, formed naturally or as a result of a cell therapy. The strength of the coupling and its potential impact on action potential characteristics and conduction are not well understood. This study used computer simulation to investigate the load-induced electrophysiological consequences of the coupling of myocytes with fibroblasts, where the fibroblast resting potential, density, distribution, and coupling strength were varied. Conduction velocity (CV), upstroke velocity, and action potential duration (APD) were analyzed for longitudinal and transverse impulse propagation in a two-dimensional microstructure tissue model, developed to represent a monolayer culture of cardiac cells covered by a layer of fibroblasts. The results show that 1) at weak coupling (<0.25 nS), the myocyte resting potential was elevated, leading to CV up to 5% faster than control; 2) at intermediate coupling, the myocyte resting potential elevation saturated, whereas the current flowing from the myocyte to the fibroblast progressively slowed down both CV and upstroke velocity; 3) at strong couplings (>8 nS), all of the effects saturated; and 4) APD at 90% repolarization was usually prolonged by 0–20 ms (up to 60–80 ms for high fibroblast density and coupling) by the coupling to fibroblasts. The changes in APD depended on the fibroblast resting potential. This complex, coupling-dependent interaction of fibroblast and myocytes also has relevance to the integration of other nonmyocytes in the heart, such as those used in cellular therapies.