Influence of Short-term, RepeatedFasting on the Skin Wound Healingof Female Mice

Abstract

Caloric restriction in mice has been found to retard the rate of aging, increase mean and maximum life spans, and inhibit the occurrence of many age-associated diseases. The following study was conducted to investigate the effect of short-term repeated fasting (4 consecutive days, every 2 weeks) before wound creation on skin wound healing. Mice were used for macroscopic study (n = 40) and hydroxyproline analysis (n = 10). Mice were also used for microscopic study (n = 36) and were divided equally into a fasting group and a control group. The results revealed that there were significant differences in epithelialization, contraction, healing, amount of collagen, and hydroxyproline between the control and fasting groups (P < 0.05). Based on the results, it can be argued that caloric restriction preceding the wound-healing period has the potential to accelerate the healing process.