Grape Seed can Help Wounds Heal Faster

Wound care and management has taken strides in the recent past with the development of advance wound care techniques and products including wound dressings and bandages. According to a team of researchers in the US, grape-seed extract may promote faster healing of wounds with minimal scarring.

Chandan Sen, the director the Laboratory of Molecular Medicine at Ohio State University's Heart and Lung Research Institute, together with a team of researchers, conducted experiments in which they tested the effects of grape-seed extract on mice and on human skin cells.

The study involved nine mice who were given small puncture wounds on the back. They were then treated with a topical formulation of grape seed proanthocyanidin extract (GSPE), which is an antioxidant, on one wound and saline solution on the other wound. The mice were put to rest after five days and a very small sample of skin was taken from the edges of the wounds treated with GSPE and from the wounds treated with saline solution.

Grape-seed extract promoted wound healing by helping the body make additional amounts of a compound that helps in angiogenesis and by increasing the amount of free radicals which help remove infection causing bacteria from the wound.
"The extract assumed a mild pro-oxidant property while in an oxidant-rich environment," said Sen. "Excessive amounts of free radicals are damaging. But every living cell makes free radicals. In controlled amounts, they help the body function."
It was observed that the levels of tenascin, a protein that helps build connective tissue, increased in the tissues of the wounds treated with GSPE.

"We saw the healing effects grape-seed extract had on wounds from day one. It seemed to enhance the formation of epidermal tissue as well as the deposition of connective tissue," said Sen. "The skin treated with grape-seed extract was further along in the healing process compared to the saline-treated tissue. The extract-treated skin showed signs of healing faster and the newly formed tissue was denser, meaning that its structure was stronger."

In another experiment, human skin cells were treated with GSPE. The scientists observed that the extract helped these cells produce more VEGF, the compound that helps the body rebuild blood vessels.

"More VEGF means blood vessels will form faster and that more nutrients will be carried by the blood to regenerate damaged tissue," Sen said.

This study is good news but the bad news is that grape-seed extract is not commercially available yet. Taking GSPE in vitamin form does not offer the same benefits.

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