56 Assessing the effect of topical gels containing oleic acid and fish oil on wound healing in piglets following surgical castration.

Abstract This study evaluated the effect of topical gels containing oleic acid and fish oil on serum-based wound healing indicators in piglets following surgical castration. Fifty-two piglets (3-7 d of age) were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 treatment groups: T1 (sham castration, n = 9); T2 (surgical castration, n = 10); T3 (surgical castration + oleic acid in its natural form, n = 8); T4 (surgical castration + 33% oleic acid gel, n = 8); T5 (surgical castration + 25% oleic acid gel, n = 8); or T6 (surgical castration + 16.5% oleic acid and 16.5% fish oil gel, n = 9). The treatments were topically applied to the incision site immediately after surgical castration. Blood samples collected immediately prior to castration (baseline) and again at +4, +8, +24, +72, and +168 h post-castration were tested for IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-8, and VEGF-α. All data were analyzed using the Proc MIXED procedure in SAS 9.4. No treatment effect was observed for IFN-γ (P > 0.10). Regardless of treatment, IFN-γ did not differ from baseline at any timepoint but was lower at 8h (P = 0.002) and 24h (P = 0.005) compared to 72h (P = 0.304). There was no effect of treatment (P > 0.09) or timepoint (P > 0.05) on IL-6. Similarly, there was no effect of treatment on IL-8 (P > 0.13). However, compared to baseline, IL-8 was lower at 4h (P = 0.001), 8h (P = 0.001), and 24h (P = 0.04) post-castration. Additionally, IL-8 was greater at 168h compared to 4h (P = 0.004), 8h (P = 0.0003), 24h (P = 0.003), and 72h (P = 0.0002) timepoints. There tended to be a treatment effect on VEGF-α (P = 0.08), where T1 exhibited lower VEGF-α concentrations compared to T2 (P = 0.012) and T3 (P = 0.005). Regardless of treatment, VEGF-α was lower at 168h compared to baseline (P = 0.04), 4h (P = 0.03), 8h (P =0.001), and 24h (P = 0.018) timepoints. Additionally, VEGF-α was lower at 72h compared to 4h (P = 0.038) and 8h (P = 0.013) timepoints. In conclusion, topical application of gels containing oleic acid and fish oil did not have an effect on blood-based wound healing indicators following surgical castration.