Use of colchicine to inhibit wound contraction

Rats and rabbits with full-thickness skin excisions were treated topically and systemically with colchicine. Wounds which had been covered by an occlusive plastic dressing and treated topically showed an inhibition of wound contraction, but only at the expense of local toxicity. Systemic colchicine had no significant effect on contraction in the doses tested. Electron microscopy of colchicine-treated wounds showed the presence of inflammatory cells and myofibroblasts containing microtubules. Colchicine inhibits wound contraction, probably by a local toxic effect rather than by any observable specific inhibition of myofibroblast structures.