The Role of Autogenous Bone Marrow in the Healing of Experimental Burn Wound Healing in Rabbits

Objective- To evaluate the role of autogenous bone marrow (BM), in the healing of experimentally induced burn wound in rats. Design- Experimental in-vivo study. Animals- 20 adult male white New Zealand rabbits. Procedures- Two burn wounds were created under general anesthesia using a 100 W electric soldering iron, heated to the point of redness (about 800° C) on each side of the back, 4 cm apart. 2 mg/kg morphine was injected intramuscularly twice daily for four days to control pain. The scab was removed from the wound 48 hours after the wound creation, when daily rinsing the wounds with normal saline began and continued until the end of the study. 48 hours after the wound creation, 1 ml BM was aspirated from left tibial plateau and injected around the wounds of the treatment group at four points, (0.2 ml at each site). The same amount of normal saline was injected around the wounds of the control group. Half of the animals were sacrificed on day 7 and the rest, on day 14 for biomechanical and histopathological evaluations. Results- Histopathologically, on day seven, both groups showed complete necrosis of epidermis and superficial dermis. There was only a mild infiltration of inflammatory cells in treatment group. On day 14, re-epithelialization could be seen in both groups, but it was more prominent in treatment group. Biomechanically, there was no significant difference between the groups on day seven; whereas, all the biomechanical parameters were significantly more in treatment group, on day 14. It can be concluded that autogenous BM can augment the healing process of burn wounds, experimentally. Conclusion and Clinical Relevance- Considering the availability and the ease of harvesting BM, this simple and applicable method can be used to exaggerate burn wound healing in any clinical condition.