Mariela Muñoz; Bélgica Vásquez & Mariano del Sol

The treatment of chronic wounds has become a public health issue in recent years mainly due to comorbidities associated with an older population and bacterial resistance. Honey has emerged as an alternative treatment for chronic wounds but lack of knowledge of its mechanism of actionin the treated tissue and low quality of evidence in clinical triads has distanced the medical community from honey as a possible treatment. One of the main processes that is altered in chronic wounds is re-epithelialization mediated by keratinocytes, where proliferation and migration processes are altered. Markers of proliferation, migration and activation of keratinocytes, such as adhesion molecules, growth factors, membrane receptors, signal translating proteins, transcription factors, microRNAs, among others are deregulated in this process. In general, honeys from different floral origins have a positive effect on markers of proliferation and migration in keratinocytes. In conclusion there are still few studies that focus on the molecular action of honey in keratinocytes and fail to report details on the honey used not allowing to achieve the same results.

KEY WORDS: Wound healing; Re-epithelialization; Keratinocytes; Honey.

MUÑOZ, M.; VÁSQUEZ, B. & DEL SOL, M. Molecular mechanisms in the process of re-epithelization in wound healing and the action of honey in keratinocytes. Int. J. Morphol., 38(6):1700-1706, 2020.