Immunomodulatory Effects of Cinnamaldehyde in Staphylococcus aureus -Infected Wounds.

Cinnamaldehyde (CNM) is an essential-oil component with reported anti-infective, anti-inflammatory, and healing effects, making it an interesting compound for the treatment of wound infection. Herein, we evaluated the effects of topical administration of CNM in experimental wounds infected by . mice ( = 12/group) were randomly allocated into three groups (CON: animals with uninfected lesions; Sa: animals with untreated infected lesions; Sa + CNM: animals with infected wounds and treated with CNM). Excisional lesions (64 mm) were induced at the dorsal area followed by the addition of (80 μL of a 1.5 × 10 CFU/mL bacterial suspension). The wounds were treated with CNM (200 μg/wound/day) or vehicle (2% DMSO) for 10 days. Skin samples were taken on the 3 or 10 treatment day for quantification of inflammatory mediators, bacterial load, immunophenotyping, and histological analysis. The treatment with CNM improved the healing process and attenuated the severity of skin lesions infected by . These effects were associated with significant decreases in bacterial loads in CNM-treated wounds. The levels of neutrophils, TNF-α, IL-6, NO, and VEGF were decreased in the lesions treated with CNM. Taken together, these data provide further evidence of the effectiveness of CNM for the treatment of skin infections.