Biochemical Markers Associated With Acute Vocal Fold Wound Healing: A Rabbit Model

This study seeks to determine the ability of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) of vocal fold secretions to detect and describe the acute tissue response to injury in a rabbit vocal fold model. Vocal fold secretions were collected before the induction of a unilateral surgical injury to the vocal fold and at 6 timepoints after injury (1, 5, 7, 10, 14, and 21 days). Secretions were then subjected to ELISAs to assess concentrations of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and prostaglandin-E2 (PGE-2). The results indicate that ELISAs may be useful in documenting fluctuations in these markers associated with the wound healing process in the rabbit model. The temporal expression of both IL-1β and PGE-2 was consistent with their proposed roles in the wound healing cascade in other systems, pointing to the potential that surface secretions may be at least partial indicators of wound healing events within the tissue.