VCOM Research Day Program Book 2023

Undergraduate Student Research Biomedical

04 Potential Beneficial Effects of Ibuprofen in Preventing Cryo-Indcued Toe Injury

Delaney Berthault 1 ; Even Reichard 1 ; Julia Vaichekauskas 1 ; Trevor Lofgran 2 ; James Mahaney 2 ; and Jia-Qiang He 1 Corresponding author: dberthault@vt.edu

1 Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech 2 Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine-Virginia Campus

Winter sport athletes are prone to injury from extreme temperatures that can result in tissue necrosis. Ibuprofen is known to have anti-inflammatory effects; therefore, the objectives of this project were to determine whether Ibuprofen improves tissue recovery when taken prophylactically. It is hypothesized that taking ibuprofen prophylactically as opposed to therapeutically will more effectively minimize damage due to cryo-induced necrosis. Rats were split into three groups: control, prophylactic, and therapeutic administration. The control group only received a daily dose of vehicle syrup with no ibuprofen for two weeks; while the prophylactic and therapeutic groups received syrup containing ibuprofen at a ratio of 100 mg to 1 ml daily for the same period of time. The prophylactic group received ibuprofen starting on day -2 following toe injury, while the therapeutic group received the same dose of ibuprofen on day 4. Each rat was subject to frostbite damage by placing their foot in dry ice

for one minute. On day 0, day 3, day 7, day 14, and day 21, laser speckle images were taken. Photo and thermal imaging were also obtained. 1 minute of live perfusion footage was taken from the center of the back paw for each rat and saved for post analysis. Photo images of the rat’s feet were taken synchronously with the laser image on days 0, 3, 7, 14, and 21. The average area size of each toe was recorded. A ratio was calculated by using the area of the injured toe versus its corresponding control toe. Thermal images of the rat’s feet were performed on the same day as above. The minimum temperature of each toe was recorded for each thermal image. Clinical scores were given to the injured toes on days 3 and 21. Each toe was conferred a clinical score between 0 and 4, from no injury to severe tissue loss, respectively. Using the clinical scores, rats were divided into groups of deep or superficial injuries. It was found that, on average, the prophylactic and

therapeutic groups had a ratio closer to 1 than the control group did when analyzing laser speckle data. So, the difference in blood flow between the left (uninjured) and right (injured) foot was more similar when the rats were given ibuprofen, indicating that it aided in minimizing damage to the right foot. The clinical scores reflected this result as well. Although both prophylactic and therapeutic administration of ibuprofen effectively minimized damage due to necrosis, additional data may be needed to increase the samples.

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