Long and persistent uncontrolled diabetes tends to
degenerate the immune system and increase the
incidence of infections in diabetic patients. A serious
complication of diabetes is impaired healing, which
diminishes physical activity and, in some cases, leads
to chronic wounds and limb amputation. Whey
proteins (WPs) enhance immunity during early
development and have a protective role in some
immune disorders. The effect of camel WPs on wound
healing in a streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetic
mice model was investigated. Sixty male mice were
equally distributed into 3 experimental groups: group
1, non-diabetic control mice; group 2, diabetic mice;
and group 3, diabetic mice that were orally
supplemented with undenatured WP (100 mg/kg body
weight/day for 1 month through oral gavage). We
observed that the diabetic mice exhibited delayed
wound closure characterized by a significant reduction
in collagen deposition, prolonged elevation in
inflammatory cytokines, aberrant activation of STAT3
and reduction in the activation of Akt and NF-κB when compared with the control mice. Moreover, in the
diabetic mice, the wound-resident macrophages were
dysfunctional and demonstrated increased apoptosis,
a significant reduction in their phagocytotic ability,
aberrant activation of STAT3 and a marked reduction
in the activation of Akt. Interestingly, the supplementation
of diabetic mice with WP significantly enhanced
the collagen deposition, limited the inflammatory
stimuli, restored the activation of STAT3, Akt and NF-
κB and greatly improved the closure of diabetic
wounds compared with the control mice. Most
important, the supplementation of diabetic mice with
WP rescued functional, long-lived wound-resident
macrophages. Our data reveal the benefits of WP
supplementation in improving the healing and closure
of diabetic wounds.