Effect of Cerebral Laterality on the Healing of Cutaneous Wounds in Normal and Split-brain Rats

Abstract

The immune system and the nervous system maintain extensive communication. Sensory innervation plays a vital role in normal wound healing. In the present study, we performed corpus callosotomy to evaluate the role of corpus callosum on brain laterality and the influence of brain laterality on wound healing in dominant and nondominant sides of the body in rats. After detecting the cerebral laterality by T-maze, 200 young male Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups. In the control group, rats underwent wounding, but no craniotomy and callosotomy. In the sham group, rats underwent wounding and craniotomy without callosotomy. In the operation group, wounding was performed with craniotomy and callosotomy. The length and the inflammatory cell count of the created wound in both sides of the body in same days were measured and analyzed statistically. Wound healing took significantly shorter in dominant side in comparison with nondominant side of body in control and sham groups (P = 0.010, 0.031, 0.029, and 0.036). In the operation group, there was no significant difference of complete wound healing between dominant and nondominant sides of the body (P = 0.875, 0.604). Inflammatory cell count showed no statistically significant difference between groups (P > 0.05). Taken together, our results constitute an endorsement to the hypothesis that brain laterality has a meaningful influence on wound healing in different sides of the body.