Pharmacological Effects of Topical Dapsone Gel in Experimentally-Induced Thermal Injury in Rabbits

Abstract

Burn injuries have been a global health issue due to their multiple widely present causes and the burden
of their consequences. There have been many chemical agents used topically to accelerate the burn wound
healing process and avoid developing infections but the desirable satisfactory level has not been reached.
Dapsone, a century-old antibiotic with anti-inflammatory effects has been investigated as a potential topical
treatment for burn wounds compared with standard silver sulfadiazine.
Forty-two apparently male rabbits were divided into four groups each of twelve animals except for the
negative control group which was 6 animals: intact healthy animals (HA), burn without treatment as a
positive control (BWT), dapsone 5% topical and silver sulfadiazine cream 1%, the latter three group’ animals
were treated twice daily for 24 days.
Burn wound contraction, the levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha TNF-a in skin tissue homogenates and
histopathological changes were assessed at days 8,16, and 24 in addition to in-vitro antimicrobial sensitivity
test.
Dapsone has shown a comparable antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria to SSD while showing
poorer activity against gram negative bacteria.
Dapsone has also shown an earlier and more significant burn size contraction compared to SSD since day8
and until the end of the study and significantly lower levels of TNF-a compared to SSD while showing lower
inflammatory and higher granulation, re-epithelization and fibrosis compared to SSD in histopathological
examination.
Our study demonstrates that dapsone is a promising candidate as a topical burn treatment due to its
antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing properties.