Administration of a novel penicillamine-bound membrane: a preventive and therapeutic treatment for abdominal adhesions

150 rats were involved in the present study. All animals were randomly divided into 6 groups (1 vehicle group and 5 test groups respectively treated with dextran, sodium hyaluronate, penicillamine, penicillamine-bound membrane or non-penicillamine-bound membrane). The occurrence, grade and score of abdominal adhesions were compared between the different groups. The breaking strength of incision was compared between the vehicle group and the penicillamine, membrane with/without penicillamine - treated groups. Expression of collagen type I was compared between the vehicle and penicillamine-treated group. The occurrence of adhesions was compared between the Dextran (Dex), sodium hyaluronate (SH), penicillamine-treated group and membrane with or without penicillamine- treated groups.Penicillamine and penicillamine-bound membrane had significant preventive effects on abdominal adhesions formation, better than dextran, sodium hyaluronate and non-penicillamine-bound membrane. However, neither of them influenced incision healing, although they insignificantly decreased the breaking strength of the incision. Penicillamine-bound membrane, which can be loaded locally and more efficaciously, shows greater advantages than penicillamine.Penicillamine-bound membrane can be applied as an effective therapeutic intervention for abdominal adhesions with inconsequential side effects.Adhesions develop in over 90% of patients after abdominal operations [3,7] and can lead to significant postsurgical complications, including small bowel obstruction, infertility, chronic pelvic pain and difficult re-operative surgeries [2,8]. Adhesions formation is a dynamic and complex process, which involves a cascade of reactions of cellular, biochemical, immunological and biomechanical factors [9]. Unfortunately, there is no available marker to predict the occurrence or severity of adhesions preoperatively [10] and therapeutic prevention still remains a challenge.At present, the prevention of adhesions