The effect of ozone treatment to the inflammatory response in lung contusion

The effects of ozone treatment on direct mechanical injury and the inflammation secondary to the injury resulting from blunt thoracic trauma were evaluated with the histopathological results obtained in our study. We have examined whether the ozone whose effect was previously shown on many tissues is effective on the inflammation in the treatment of lung contusion in rats with blunt thoracic trauma with the trial model established in our study.Method: The trial protocol was approved by the Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine (Protocol number: 59/2011). 24 adult male Wistar albino rats of the same colony with an average weight of 2000-250 gr were used in our study. The rats were divided into 3 groups. The rats in the first group were anaesthetized with ketamine HCl/xylazine . The rats in the other group were given contusion with isolated unilateral lung contusion developed by Raghavendran et al. The rats in the 3rd group were given 30 µgr/ml ozone at a dose of 1.1mg/kg intrarectally after the contusion for 5 days. Analgesia was maintained with morphine HCL. Sacrification was maintained 5 days after the treatment. Histopathological evaluation was made after the sacrification. Four different parameters; atelectasis, parenchymal inflammation, perivascular mononuclear inflammation and bronchial injury, were used in histopathological evaluation and all parameters were scaled.Findings: Cell concentration, perivascular mononuclear inflammation and leukocyte infiltration were seen to be statistically significantly higher in the lung tissues of all the rats in the trauma group compared to the lung tissues of the rats in the anesthesia group. However when the control group and trauma, ozone groups were compared there wasn?t a statistically significant difference in terms of alveolar edema and bronchial injury. However in subgroup analyses when the trauma group and the ozone group, there wasn?t a statistical significance in both groups in terms of histopathological data.Conclusion: When inflammatory stages and cell distribution were compared in our groups, advanced acute inflammatory changes (revascularization and fibroblast activation) were found on the 5th day of the inflammation in the both contusion groups and no significant difference was observed in terms of inflammatory response pattern. This situation supports the fact that ozone treatment doesn?t decrease the inflammatory response. Consequently no positive effect of ozone treatment was shown on the acute and subacute inflammatory response in decreasing the primary and secondary injury caused by the trauma.Key words: Ozone, contusion, inflammation