Adult Zebrafish Model of Wound Inflammation to Study Wound Healing Potency of Curcuma longa Extracts Title changed as suggested by the reviewer

Aims: To understand the potential use of adult Zebrafish as a wound inflammation model to screen phytocompounds and chemically synthesized subjects.

Study Design: The experiment was designed to use healthy adult Zebrafish wound models, each group containing 30 fishes. One group was used as a control and others were the experimental groups. These were treated with the Curcuma longa extracts at various concentrations. The wound inflammation was studied in the treatment groups in terms of tissue regeneration and neutrophil migration.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Sri Ramachandra University, during May 2015- August 2015.

Methodology: Caudal fin transection technique was used to establish the adult Zebrafish wound inflammation model. The study involved fin regeneration measurement and determination of neutrophil population at the wound site by performing histopathological staining of the tissue sections

Results: The fishes treated with aqueous extract had better wound healing compared to ethanol extract. The fishes treated with 500 µg of the aqueous extract showed maximum fin regeneration on day 5 compared to the control fishes. The same treatment also showed good neutrophil population at the wound site at 24 hrs post wounding and maximum resolution of inflammation after 24 hrs. The fishes treated with 500μg concentration of the aqueous extract showed twice the neutrophil population at 24 hrs and less than half of the neutrophil population at day 5pt compared with the untreated control group. The values were statistically analyzed using SPSS 17.0 version; for multivariate analysis Kruskal Wallis test was used. The values were highly significant at P<.01.

Conclusion: The study experimentally concludes the potential usage of adult Zebrafish as a model of wound inflammation to screen various bioactive fractions from plants or from synthetic origin for their wound healing abilities.