Effects of Chitin and Chitosan on Collagen Synthesis in Wound Healing

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Collagen synthesis was evaluated by measuring prolyl hydroxylase (PHL) activity induced within rat granulation tissue by a polyester non-woven fabric (NWF, 1 × 1 cm, 0.6 mm in thickness) impregnated with a chitin or chitosan suspension ranging in concentration from 0.1 to 10 mg/ml. In addition, PHL activity induced in rat granulation tissue by a NWF impregnated with a phosphate buffer solution was examined as a control. The PHL activity in each group remained low until 4 days post-implantation (Day 4). However, in the 10 mg chitin group, the PHL activity increased rapidly without scatter of the data at Day 7 and remained at a plateau until Day 14. In other groups, PHL activity increased linearly until Day 14. The data varied widely at Day 7. Compared to chitosan, chitin at the higher concentration was found to induce stable collagen synthesis in the early wound healing process. KEY WORDS: chitin, chitosan, prolyl hydroxylase.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 66(12): 1595-1598, 2004 Chitin and chitosan have been widely studied in both engineering and medicine. In the field of medicine, the effects of chitin and chitosan on wound healing have been the focus of great attention since Prudden et al. published a paper in 1970 stating that these agents accelerate wound healing [15]. Numerous reports describe the stimulatory effects of chitin and chitosan on tissue reactions involved in wound healing [1,[3][4][5][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Their most notable property is their propensity to induce abundant granulation tissue formation with angiogenesis. Previous reports indicated that chitin and chitosan induced fine collagen fibers histologically [3,11]. Moreover, chitin was found to enhance synthesis of types I, III, and IV collagen [4]. However, these reports indicate only the properties of the collagen synthesized. To understand more about wound healing acceleration by chitin and chitosan, it is important to clarify the quantity of collagen synthesized as well as its properties. In this paper, we evaluated the degree to which chitin and chitosan stimulate collagen synthesis by measuring prolyl hydroxylase activity, an activity necessary for collagen synthesis in rats [18].Thirty Wistar rats (adult females, weighing 270-300 g) were used in this study. The animals were purchased from Hamaguti Laboratory Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan). Chitin and chitosan were supplied by Sunfive Co., Ltd. (Tottori, Japan). Molecular weights and rates of deacetylation were determined using the viscoanetric method [19] and infra-red spectroscopic method [17], respectively. The data obtained for chitin and chitosan yielded molecular weights of 300 and 80 kD, and deacetylation rates of <10 and >80%, respectively. Chitin and chitosan having a mean particle size of 3.5 µm were sterilized separately using ethylene oxide gas and suspended in phosphate buffered solution (PBS, pH 7.2) at a concentration of 10 mg/ml. According to our measurements in a previous investigation [5], the optimum doses of chitin and chitosan in granulation tissue formation in rats w...

The effect of chitosan gel concentration on neutrophyl and macrophage in gingival ulcer of Sprague Dawley rat

“…Macrophages, fibroblast and vascular tissue together enter to the wound and begin to make the formation of granulation tissue that further to re-epithelialization process. 3 Kojima et al 8 reported that many polykaryocytes from the fusion of macrophages were observed in implant with chitin at 7 days compared to the control group. Chitin at higher concentration stimulate platelets and macrophages, resulting in the release of PDGF and TGF-β but the phenomenon suggests influence locally only, not systematically.…”

“…6,7 Several studies report the effects of chitin and chitosan on tissue reaction involved in wound healing. 3,4,8,9 They accelerate infiltration of inflammatory cells, stimulate angiogenesis, induce the rapid formation of vascular granulating tissue, the disappearance of purulence and they promote skin regeneration with minimal scar formation. They also have candidacidal and bactericidal activity.…”

“…3,4,20 Kojima et al,8 reported that at 2 nd day, the inflammatory cells increased within implant of the chitin and chitosan groups but not in the control group. Chitosan was also reported has antimicrobial activity that against different groups of microorganism such as bacteria, …”

Polymer-Based Nanomaterials and Applications for Vaccines and Drugs

“…Hemostasis material, medical dressing, hydrogel, drug delivery carrier, gene transfer [22] Biocompatibility, antimicrobial, innocuous, easily degradable, adsorbability, film formation [23][24][25][26][27] Poor spinnability, poor strength, low water-solubility [23,25] Starch Hemostasis material, tissue-engineered scaffold, drug delivery carrier, bone repair material [28,29] Extensive sources, low price, degradation products safe and non-toxic, non-antigenic [28,30] Poor mechanical properties, resistance to water, poor blocking performance [28,30] Alginate Pharmaceutical excipient, pepcid complete, medical dressing [31][32][33][34][35] Hypotoxicity, biocompatibility, suppresses tumor growth, enhances immunity [31][32][33][34][35] Bad biodegradability, cell attachment poor [31][32][33][34][35] Cellulose Pharmaceutical adjuvant [28] Extensive sources, low price [28] Rare adverse reactions [28] Drug-delivery carrier, tissue engineering material [36][37][38] Biodegradable, safe, non-toxic, good physical and chemical properties [37,39] High crystallinity, bad thermal stability [37,39] Chemosynthes material (Copolymer)…”

“…However, the performance of derivatives is often better than chitosan [53]. There are many studies on chitosan derivatives obtained through such processes as acylation, alkylation, sulfation, hydroxylation, quaternization, and carboxymethylation [23][24][25][26][27]. Among them, products obtained through quaternization and carboxymethylation have received increasing amounts of attention because of their good water solubility.…”