Effects of environmental stress on tissue survival and neutrophil recruitment in surgical skin flaps in relation to plasma corticosterone levels in the rat

Abstract

Skin flap survival in rats exposed to environmental stress may be significantly increased as compared to animals accustomed to their new environment for one week, possibly as a consequence of anti-inflammatory actions exerted by stress-induced elevations in plasma corticosterone. These findings emphasize the importance of strictly controlling environmental stress factors in studies of inflammation and tissue damage after surgical skin trauma.

Comparing the Effect of Hirudoid on Random Skin Flap Survival in Rats Based on Different Application Times

“…Appropriate proportion depends on the vascularity and sub dermal plexus of each area, about 3 -4 to 1 length to width (10). However, in every condition, flap ischemia and necrosis may occur (8). Many drugs have been studied in preventing flap ischemia and necrosis.…”

“…However, in these studies, flaps have a wide range of viability in control and treatment groups. Differences in race, sex, and feeding order of rats, design of flap, time of study, amount of drug, and infection after surgery can explain this variety (8) and should be considered in concluding the results.…”

“…They had 3 × 10 cm flaps on Wistar rats without using sterile drape; in contrast, there were elevated 3 × 11 cm flaps on SpragueDawley rats and sterile drapes were used under the flaps to prevent graft effect, which can improve flap survival. The rats of the present study were kept in the animal laboratory 10 days before the surgery in order to decrease protective effects of transporting stress (8). Also, 2 gr Hirudoid versus 0.5 gr was used for their study.…”

“…Water and standard laboratory food for rats were provided ad libitum. To the environmental stress (8), all the rats were transported to the laboratory at the same time and were kept for ten days. Then, they were randomly assigned to three groups and anesthetized with intramuscular injection of 90 mg/kg Ketamine (Ketamine 10%, Alfasan lab, Woerden, Netherland) and 9 mg/kg Xylazin (Xylazin 2%, Alfasan lab, Woerden, Netherland).…”

Role of nitric oxide on purinergic signalling in the cochlea

“…Glucocorticoids may thus directly affect the inner ear function under physiological and pathological conditions. It has been shown that concentrations of dexamethasone, which can activate glucocorticoid receptors, ranged from 100 nM to 1 µM under normal and stress conditions [106][107][108]. In the rat inner ear, the plasma concentrations of glucocorticoids were elevated up to 1 µM under noise conditions [104].…”