Topical Astragaloside IV-Releasing Hydrogel Improves Healing of Skin Wounds <i>in Vivo</i>

Abstract

Topical delivery of therapeutic agents at the time of injury to accelerate skin repair and prevent the formation of scars during the wound healing process has received increasing attention and represents a novel regenerative and prophylactic strategy for wound treatment. The aim of this study was to invesigate, for the first time, the influence of topical astragaloside IV-releasing hydrogel on the wound repair and regeneration. Using the sodium alginate-gelatin as a hydrogel vehicle, the astragaloside IV was incorporated into the topical carrier and kept releasing with a sustained manner at the wound site. With the rat skin excision model, regulation of the astragaloside IV hydrogel on the wound repair and regeneration were investigated. It was found that the astragaloside IV hydrogel was effective in the skin wound repair, leading to a significant improvement on the wound closure, collagen synthesis and skin tensile strength recovery. Meanwhile, for the first time, that functions of astragaloside IV hydrogel in activating the skin appendages regeneration and increasing the transforming growth factor-β 1 (TGF-β 1 ) level in serum were shown. Results of this study provided evidence for the alginate-gelatin hydrogel as efficient carrier for the topical delivery of bioactive molecules to the injured site. The astragaloside IV releasing hydrogel was shown a promising therapeutic formulation for wound healing, as well as its regenerative feature and underlying mechanism contribute to the skin regeneration were disclaimed.

Sodium Alginate Inhibits Methotrexate-Induced Gastrointestinal Mucositis in Rats

“…24) Moreover, AL-Na-based gel matrixes promoted collagen synthesis and stimulated transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGFβ1) secretion in skin wounds. 25) As overexpression of TGFβ1 contributed to proliferation during wound healing, 26) it was suggested that the effects of alginate hydrogel on collagen synthesis may primarily relate to increased TGFβ1 secretion. In addition, it is thought that AL-Na has no influence on anti-cancer action for leukemia and other malignancies because TGFβ that is highly produced in the wound area and cancer area may stimulate cell growth in the wound and cancer.…”

Research review on the pharmacological effects of astragalosideIV

“…Re-epithelialization, angiogenesis, and collagen are involved in the wound healing remodeling phase [157]. AS-IV (25-100 lM) solution and solid lipid nanoparticle-enriched hydrogen (SLN gel) could remarkably improve the migration and proliferation of keratinocytes and promote the wound healing via improving wound closure and skin tensile strength recovery, and inhibit scar formation via regulating collagen synthesis and the ratio of type I/type III, modulating collagen deposition and reducing the concentration of collagen I/III and TGF-b1 secretion by fibroblasts in vitro and in vivo [158][159][160]. However, in Gur's study, cycloastragenol (CA) is more effective than AS-IV for wound treatment [161].…”

Nanofiber scaffolds attenuate collagen synthesis of human dermal fibroblasts through TGF-β1/TSG-6 pathway*

“…As a synthetic polymer, PCL lacks bioactive sites for cellular interactions [19,20]. Gelatin is derived from native collagen, and has been widely used to develop wound dressings owing to its biocompatibility and biological activities [21,22]. Therefore, a combination of gelatin and PCL is feasible to obtain a biocompatible composite scaffolds [23], which have been proved effectively in tissues reconstruction, such as skin [24], bone [25], nerves [26] and blood vessel [27].…”