Vanadate ingestion increases the gain in wound breaking strength and leadsto better organized collagen fibers in rats during healing

Repair of incision wounds closed by suturing is evaluated by the progressiv e gain in wound breaking strength. Previously the closure of open wounds in rats ingesting vanadate, an inhibitor of tyrosine phosphate phosphatases, was shown to occur with deposition of more uniformly organized collagen fib er bundles. The hypothesis of this study was that deposition of more unifor mly organized collagen fibers would enhance the gain in wound breaking stre ngth of incisional wounds. Six adult rats received vanadate-supplemented sa line drinking water for 1 week before placement of two 6-cm, parallel, sutu re-closed wounds on their backs. Six control rats received identical wounds and were given saline drinking water. The drinking water regimen was conti nued for 1 week after wounding, and then wound strength was tested with a t ensiometer and tissue samples were obtained for histologic evaluation. Woun d breaking strength doubled in vanadate-treated rats compared with controls . Bright-field and polarized light microscopy showed that the connective ti ssue matrix of granulation tissue from control rats was oriented perpendicu lar to the surface of the skin. In contrast, the connective tissue matrix o f granulation tissue from vanadate-treated rats was oriented parallel to th e skill surface. The gap in granulation tissue between the edges of the wou nds in the vanadate-treated rats was greater than that in controls. Electro n microscopy showed that: wounds in the vanadate-treated contained uniform collagen fibers that were 20 percent greater in diameter and more evenly sp aced than they were in controls. It is proposed that these changes in the o rganization of collagen fibers within incisional wounds were responsible fo r the increased wound breaking strength observed in rats ingesting vanadate .