Number of studies has been conducted to highlight the anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive properties of cannabinoids and also their potentials for prevention of cartilage degradation. Various wound healing techniques can be used to investigate the mechanisms of chondrocyte repair in monolayer or 3 dimensional tissue. Therefore, we investigated the effect of two different concentrations (0.6 and 0.9μg/ml) of the synthetic cannabinoid R (+) WIN55, 212-2 on the wound healing of chondrocyte monolayers using a simple scratch assay model. WIN55, 212-2 was found to increase both the migration and proliferation of chondrocytes cultured in a chondrogenic media, with increase in the wound closure rate. These findings highlight the potential use of the synthetic cannabinoid for improving the rate of wound closure as well as acting as an anti-inflammatory agent, which could be used to enhance tissue engineering protocols aimed at cartilage repair.
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