Background and purpose: Chronic alcohol intake associated with an inappropriate diet can cause lesions in multiple organs and tissues and complicate the tissue repair process. In a systematic review, we analyzed the relevance of alcohol and high fat consumption to cutaneous and repair, compared the main methodologies used and the most important parameters tested. Preclinical investigations with murine models were assessed to analyze whether the current evidence support clinical trials.
Methods: The studies were selected from MEDLINE/PubMed and Scopus databases, according to Fig 1. All 15 identified articles had their data extracted. The reporting bias was investigated according to the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of in Vivo Experiments) strategy.
Results: In general, animals offered a high-fat diet and alcohol showed decreased cutaneous wound closure, delayed skin contraction, chronic inflammation and incomplete re-epithelialization.
Conclusion: In further studies, standardized experimental design is needed to establish comparable study groups and advance the overall knowledge background, facilitating data translatability from animal models to human clinical conditions.