Hydrogen Saline Speeds Wound Healing in Rabbits
- Authors
- Xinwen Kuang, Zhengyun Liang, Yijun Xia, Mengjie Shan, Yan Hao, Hao Liu, Zhi Wang, Qianjun He, Chao Xia, Cheng Feng, Chang Guojing, Youbin Wang
- Journal
- Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
- Year
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1111/jcmm.70292
- Study Type
- Rabbit
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Chronic Wounds
- Body System
- Integumentary
TL;DR
A combination of hydrogen-rich saline and a wound treatment called vacuum sealing drainage can speed up skin healing by improving energy production and antioxidant levels in cells.
Key Finding
Hydrogen-rich saline combined with vacuum drainage significantly accelerated wound healing in a rabbit model, potentially by enhancing cellular energy production and reducing oxidative stress through changes in biotin metabolism.
Summary
Researchers tested whether hydrogen-rich saline (salt water infused with hydrogen) combined with vacuum drainage could speed up wound healing in rabbits. They found that this combination treatment accelerated healing and identified that it may work by improving how cells use biotin (a B vitamin) to produce energy and reduce harmful oxidative stress.
Practical Takeaway
This early-stage animal study suggests hydrogen-rich saline may support wound healing, but it has not been tested in humans yet. The findings are preliminary and would need human clinical trials before any health recommendations could be made. The study also used vacuum drainage alongside the hydrogen treatment, so it's unclear how much benefit comes from hydrogen alone.
Abstract
Impaired wound healing affects the life quality of patients and causes a substantial financial burden. Hydrogen-rich medium is reported to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. However, the role of hydrogen-rich saline (HRS) in cutaneous wound healing remains largely unexplored, especially by metabolomics. Thus, untargeted metabolomics profiling was analysed to study the effects and mechanism of HRS combined with vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) in a rabbit full-thickness wound model. Our results indicated that the combination treatment of HRS and VSD could accelerate wound healing. In vitro experiments further confirmed its effects on HaCaT keratinocytes. We found that 45 metabolites were significantly changed between the VSD + HRS group and the VSD + saline-treated group. Pathway enrichment analysis indicated that biotin metabolism was the potential target pathway. The biochemical interpretation analysis demonstrated that combining HRS and VSD might enhance mitochondrial function, ATP synthesis, and GSH homeostasis by altering biotin metabolism. The detection of representative indicators of oxidative stress supported the critical metabolic pathway analysis as well. In summary, VSD combined with HRS might provide a new strategy to enhance wound healing.