Background: Collagen and chitosan are potential biomaterials for medical applications; chitosan-collagen membranes are used as a barrier membrane in guided tissue regeneration and guided bone regeneration.
Aims: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of the chitosan-collagen membrane on wound healing in rat mandibular defect by counting the number of fibroblasts and new blood vessels.
Materials and methods: As much as 24 male Wistar rats were divided into two groups, the treatment and control group. Bone defects were made In the rat mandible with diamond bur with a diameter of 2 mm, then the defect was covered with a chitosan-collagen membrane, and the control group was covered without application of chitosan-collagen membrane. After the 3rd, 7th, 14th, and the 21st day, the defect site was analyzed histologically. The number of fibroblasts and blood vessels was counted under a light microscope, at five fields with ×1000 and ×400 microscope magnification.
Statistical analysis used: This study was done by using analysis of variance and unpaired t-test.
Results: The average number of fibroblasts and blood vessels in the treatment group was higher than the control group. There was a significant difference in the number of fibroblasts on the 3rd and 7th day (P = 0.001; P = 0.001) and the number of blood vessels on the 3rd day (P = 0.04).
Conclusion: The chitosan-collagen membrane was able to increase the number of fibroblasts and new blood vessels in the wound healing process.
Keywords: Chitosan-collagen membrane; mandibular defect; wound healing.