Purpose: To measure CXCL10 as angiostatic, and CXCL1, CXCL12 as angiogenic chemokines in the tissues of wounds of diabetics following treatment with insulin, angipars (a herbal Iranian drug) and a combination of angipars and insulin.

Methods: Forty eight male Wistar rats weighing 200 - 250 g were used. The induction of diabetes was carried out with 50 mg/kg of STZ (streptozotocin). Approximately, 56 days following the induction of diabetes, the rats were injured to establish wound lesion. They were divided into four main groups: non-diabetic control group (received only saline), diabetes group without treatment (received only saline), diabetes group which received insulin (reference) as treatment, and diabetes group which received both insulin and angipars. After 12 days of treatment, the animals were subjected to blood sampling from retro-orbital vein and CXC chemokines were analyzed by Western blotting.

Results: The results show that the concentration of CXC10 decreased from 95 pg/ml in the diabetic control group to 40 and 10 pg/ml in the insulin and combined angipars/insulin groups, respectively (p ≤ 0.05). However, CXCL12 concentration was not changed among the various groups compared to the control group. In diabetic control and angipars-insulin groups, CXCL1 level (pg/ml) was 98 and 50, respectively, thus indicating that expression of CXCL1 chemokine decreased significantly (p ≤ 0.05).

Conclusions: Angipars, due probably to its richness in some natural compounds such as coumarin and flavonoids (which are antioxidants), mediates chemokines expression and may be effective in the regulation of angiogenesis and inflammation via balancing of chemokines expression.