The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of light emitting diode (LED) irradiation on healing of impaired wound and alteration of mast cells in experimental diabetic rats. Twenty-four male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups: excision (Ex), excision-LED irradiation (Ex-LED), diabetes + excision (DM) and diabetes + excision + LED irradiation (DM-LED). Diabetes was induced in rats by streptozotocin (STZ) injection (70 mg/kg, single dose) and 6 mm punch excision wounds were created on the back after shaving hair. The LED-irradiated rats were treated to a daily dose of $5;J/cm^2$ LED (630 nm) light for 11 days after surgery, and were killed at day 1, 3, 7 and 11. The lesion and adjacent skin tissues were excised, fixed with 10% buffered formalin and embedded with paraffin. For evaluation of wound healing, hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and Masson trichrome staining were performed. Mast cells (MCs) were stained with toluidine blue (pH 0.5) and quantified using a computerized image analysis system. The proliferation activity of keratinocyte in skin tissues was analyzed on sections immunostained with proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). The results showed that wound healing rate, collagen density and neo-epidermis length, number of PCNA-positive cells, fibroblasts and mast cells were significantly higher in the LED-irradiated rats than in the DM and Ex rats throughout the periods of experiment. Exceptionally, the number of MCs was significantly lower at day 11 compared with day 7 after surgery in the all groups. These findings suggest that the LED irradiation may promote the tissue repair process by accelerating keratinocyte and fibroblast proliferation and collagen production in normal rats as well as in diabetic rats, and MCs may play an important role at an early stage of skin wound healing in normal and diabetic rats.