Amniotic membrane as a biological dressing for 5-fluoruracil-induced oral mucositis in rats.

Oral mucositis is a reaction to chemoradiation therapy during cancer treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of amniotic membrane as a biological dressing for oral mucositis lesions in rats. Sixty Wistar rats were divided into three groups (n = 20): control, 5-fluoruracil (5-FU), 5-fluoruracil + amniotic membrane (5-FU+AM). Each group was subdivided (n = 5) according to the time interval to sacrifice (3, 7, 14, and 21 days). Histology (haematoxylin-eosin staining) and immunocytochemistry (anti-rat antibodies CD4, CD8, VEGF, and PCNA) were evaluated. Immunocytochemistry results were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey tests. The amniotic membrane (5FU+AM) played an important role in cell proliferation (PCNA 3 days 27.08 +/- 4.65, 7 days 27.90 +/- 3.34) and especially in neovascularization (VEGF 3 days 23.00 +/- 1.40, 7 days 26.00 +/- 0.95) for all time intervals, when compared to 5-FU (PCNA 3 days 23.12 +/- 1.61, 7 days 37.21 +/- 1.20; VEGF 3 days 17.05 +/- 1.51, 7 days 8.45 +/- 1.35) and control (PCNA 3 days 29.99 +/- 0.92, 7 days 16.33 +/- 2.88; VEGF 3 days 13.65 +/- 0.55, 7 days 15.70 +/- 1.39). It was biocompatible, showing significant differences compared to the other groups in CD4 (F = 40.72; P = 0.001) and CD8 (F = 69.99, P = 0.001) staining together, only during the inflammation phase (7 days). Amniotic membrane presented biocompatibility and stimulated cell proliferation and neovascularization, functioning as a promising biological dressing.