To investigate the effect of Acorus calamus L. on wound healing of radioactive skin injury in rats based on the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway.

A rat model of radioactive skin injury was induced by the radionuclide irradiation, the successful model rats were randomly divided into the model group, the control group, and the experimental -H, -M, -L groups with 12 rats in each group, and another 12 normal rats were taken as the normal group. Experimental-H, -M, -L goups was applied with Acorus calamus L. 600, 400, 200 g·kg^-1, respectively. Control group was applied with triethanolamine cream 400 g·kg^-1 on rat wounds; normal and model groups were treated with 0.9% NaCl. Six groups were treated once a day for 45 days. The healing rate of wounds was compared among the six groups. The levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in serum and hydroxyproline (HYP) in wound tissue were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The protein levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38) and nuclear factor κB p65 subunit (p65) were detected by Western blot.

The wound healing rates of experimental-H, -M, -L groups, control group and model group were (70.24±3.17)%, (62.41±4.52)%, (49.89±4.61)%, (50.35±2.44)% and (29.42±4.23)%, respectively. The levels of IL-1β in experimental-H, -M, -L groups, control group, model group and normal group were (41.22±2.98), (52.35±1.69), (61.32±2.74), (45.26±3.12), (79.24±5.64) and (28.85±2.11) pg·L^-1; the levels of IL-6 were (25.68±1.65), (32.55±2.64), (51.23±2.34), (32.32±1.56), (61.12±2.35) and (18.88±1.12) pg·L^-1; the levels of TNF-α were (62.38±5.66), (73.56±4.52), (88.63±5.68), (68.33±4.32), (112.48±6.52) and (55.21±3.89) pg·L^-1; the levels of HYPs of (3.77±0.41), (3.51±0.26), (2.98±0.39), (3.62±0.37), (2.21±0.48) and (4.22±0.55) μg·mg^-1; the relative expression levels of IL-1β were 0.31±0.04, 0.43±0.07, 0.60±0.03, 0.51±0.04, 0.69±0.06 and 0.11±0.07; the relative expression levels of IL-6 were 0.50±0.03, 0.60±0.04, 0.69±0.04, 0.62±0.07, 0.83±0.08 and 0.28±0.06; the relative expression levels of TNF-α were 0.49±0.06, 0.61±0.03, 0.73±0.06, 0.59±0.04, 0.83±0.05 and 0.28±0.04; the phosphorylated p38/p38 ratios were 0.46±0.06, 0.56±0.04, 0.67±0.03, 0.56±0.05, 0.84±0.04 and 0.34±0.08; the phosphorylated p65/p65 ratios were 0.37±0.06, 0.54±0.03, 0.63±0.04, 0.47±0.05, 0.79±0.04, and 0.32±0.06, respectively. Compared with model group, the above indexes in the experimental-H, -M groups were statistically significant (all P<0.05).

Acorus calamus L. can promote the healing of radioactive skin injury in rats, inhibit the inflammation level of the wound tissue, and promote collagen deposition, and its mechanism may be related to the regulation of MAPK/NF-κB pathway.