Investigation of the effects of Chinese medicine on fibroblast viability: implications in wound healing

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus has been a clinical problem for hundreds of years. Over 194 million people suffer from this disease worldwide. Improper control of diabetes may result in diabetic foot ulcer or even amputation. Granulation formation is an important issue essential for ulcer healing. The CRL-7522 fibroblast cell line and primary fibroblasts from a diabetic foot ulcer patient were used to model the wound healing enhancing activities of two clinically efficacious Chinese herbal formulae, Formula 1 (F1) and Formula 2 (F2) and their component herbs. Results showed that the two formulae and four of their component herbs, Radix Astragali, Radix Rehmanniae, Rhizoma Alismatis and Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae significantly enhanced CRL-7522 cell viability. However, these component herbs showed compromised effects on the viability of primary fibroblasts cultured from the ulcerous tissue of a diabetic patient. Interestingly, F1 and F2 enhanced the viability of primary cultured fibroblasts from the diabetic patient even in the face of insulin resistance. These results further support the previously reported clinical efficacies of the two formulae on healing diabetic foot ulcers.

The effect of silymarin (Silybum marianum) on human skin fibroblasts in anin vitrowound healing model

“…Fibroblasts secrete collagens and subsequently affect the remodeling of granulation tissue into mature dermis (Lau et al, 2007). In this study, results of BrdU incorporation and MTT assays revealed that silymarin had no effect on fibroblast proliferation in the studied concentration range.…”

Effect of a twin-herb formula for the Treatment of Chronic Non-healing Ulcers: a Clinical Study

“…Radix Rehmanniae has been shown to greatly facilitate fi broblast proliferation in our laboratory and also in some other studies [3][4][5]. Astragalus is well known for its immunomodulating effects.…”

“…The herbs mainly worked on the control of infl ammation and promotion of granulation formation through stimulation of fi broblast proliferation [3,4].…”

Tissue therapy with autologous dermal and epidermal culture cells for diabetic foot ulcers

“…Diabetes mellitus is an important worldwide public health problem, affecting 5-10% of the population and impairing the quality of life of the affected individuals due to the significant resulting complications (Lau et al 2007;Vojtassák et al 2006;Sweitzer et al 2006).…”