¹Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mosul University, Nineveh, Iraq
²Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mosul University, Nineveh, Iraq DOI : 10.29228/jrp.226 A concerning global health issue is the growing incidence of antibiotic resistance in skin and soft tissue infection. This study aimed to assess the healing potential of topically applied Saccharomyces boulardii on excisional skin wound infected with Staphylococcus aureus using a rat model. The wounded animals were divided into three groups; group 1: uninfected untreated, group 2: infected untreated and group 3: infected S. boulardii-treated. Treatment commenced 2 days post infection. Parameters studied were wound microbial load, rate of wound contraction, serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level and rat β-defensin 1 (RBD-1) gene expression. Staphylococcal bacterial load decline was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in group 3 when compared to group 2 at day 5, 6 and 7 accompanied by a growing of S. boulardii load on the animals of group 3. A complete wound closure (100%) was monitored in study group 3 at day 7 in comparison to the control groups, where partial healing was achieved (67.10 and 91.74% in group 1 and 2 respectively). No significant difference of CRP level among the three groups was encountered indicating no influence of S. boulardii on this protein. RBD-1 gene expression in group 3 was found higher than the two control groups (p < 0.05 and < 0.01 in comparison to group 1 and group 2 respectively). Topical application of S. boulardii was shown able to enhance wound healing and competitively exclude the infecting pathogen. The increased antimicrobial peptide gene expression in S. boulardii treated group might contribute to its healing potential. Keywords : Bacterial load; C-reactive protein; defensin; gene expression; Saccharomyces boulardii; skin wound; Staphylococcus aureus