The effect of zinc deficiency on wound healing

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Abstract
The place of the trace element zinc in wound healing has been the subject of much recent discussion. Since it is theoretically possible that seriously ill surgical patients may become zinc deficient it seems of importance to establish the relationship between zinc and wound healing. In the experiments described here zinc deficiency has been created in rats and two parameters of wound healing, namely the rate of epithelialization of excised wounds and the development of tensile strength in incised wounds, have been measured and compared with similar measurements in control animals. It has been shown that there was a significant delay in the healing of excised wounds in zinc-deficient animals, and the development of tensile strength in incised wounds was also significantly less when measured at the same time as the wounds of control animals. Histologically there was no difference in the wounds of zinc-deficient or control animals.

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