Wound Healing Properties of Cimetidine in Vitro

Abstract

Cimetidine was one of a variety of drugs frequently given to surgical patients perioperatively tested for their effect on gap closure of wounded monolayers of human fascia cells in vitro. Cimetidine-treated cultures closed faster and had greater cell proliferation than controls. Closure of cimetidine-treated cultures occurred at six hours compared to ten hours in controls. Cimetidine concentrations of 1000 μg/ml resulted in 13.5 ± 0.67 (SEM) × 10⁴ cells/cm² at six hours compared to 7.9 ± 0.48 times 10⁴ cells/cm² in controls (p<0.05); the area covered by cells was 6.5 ± 0.02 mm² in treated cultures compared to 3.0 ± 0.01 mm² in controls (p<0.05). It is concluded that cimetidine stimulates fibroblast proliferation in vitro.