Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza Ameliorates Burn Injuries by Reducing Inflammation and Promoting Wound Healing

Abstract

Purpose

Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza (RSM), a commonly used medicinal plant, has been reported to have anti-inflammatory effects, but relevant studies on burn injuries are lacking. We investigated the anti-inflammation and wound healing (WH) effects of an aqueous extract of RSM on a burn model in rats.

Methods

The effects of RSM were studied by heat-induced burns in rats, treatment with vehicle, Jinwanhong ointment, and RSM (1.5 or 0.75 g/mL). Indicators of burn tissue (BT) were photographed by digital machines and analyzed. The microcirculation in BT was detected by scattered full-frame real-time imaging. Levels of inflammatory mediators and growth factors were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunohistochemical staining. Local pathologic changes in BT were observed by hematoxylin-and-eosin (HE) staining. Ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography–linear ion trap–Orbitrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC–LTQ–Orbitrap-MS) was used to explore the absorption of RSM in local skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle tissue, serum, liver tissue, and kidney tissue.

Results

RSM treatment could reduce the wound area, increase percent WH, increase blood perfusion in BT, reduce serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), increase levels of epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, and hydroxyproline (Hyp) in serum, and increase protein expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), TGF-β1, EGF, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF)-1 in skin tissues. RSM treatment led to micro-absorption in the skin, subcutaneous tissues, and muscle, but not in the blood, liver, or kidney.

Conclusion

RSM may promote WH by exerting anti-inflammatory effects, improving local-wound microcirculation, and accelerating the metabolism at the wound surface.

Keywords:

• Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza
• burns
• anti-inflammatory
• wound healing

Acknowledgments

We thank all the study participants, research staff, and students who contributed to this study. We thank The Charlesworth Group (https://www.cwauthors.com/) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Project of China (82074038), the Postdoctoral Research project of Henan Province (202001053), the Henan Major Science and Technology Special Projects (201300310100), the Henan Province Key R&D Special Project (International Cooperation Category) (231111521200), the Henan Province Chinese Medicine “double first-class” to create a special project of scientific research (HSRP-DFCTCM-2023-7-01).