1′‐Acetoxychavicol acetate accelerates human skin wound healing

Abstract

IntroductionChronic wounds are recently increasing in number among diabetic or bedridden person. It is important to find effective treatments for them. 1′‐acetoxychavicol acetate (ACA) is the compound obtained from ginger family such as Alpinia galangal. ACA has been reported to have various physiological effects, anti‐cancer, anti‐obesity, and anti‐oxidant. Here, we focus on the effect of ACA on wound healing.MethodsWe performed scratch assay in the presence of mitomycin‐C to block HaCaT keratinocytes (KCs) cell proliferation. We performed an in vitro scratch assay with MEK/ERK inhibitor (U0126) or PI3K inhibitor (LY294002), to examine how the inhibition of MEK/ERK or PI3K affects HaCaT KCs migration. Furthermore, we performed human wounded skin organ culture with ACA. We measured the length of epithelial tongue.ResultsACA significantly promoted wound closure in the presence of mitomycin‐C. This result showed that ACA stimulates HaCaT KCs migration without modifying proliferation. MEK/ERK or PI3K‐inhibited HaCaT KCs in the presence of ACA showed a reduction of migration as compared to the ACA alone treated cells. These results suggest that ACA could promote wound closure via inducing ERK/MAPK and PI3K activity. Furthermore, ACA stimulated human skin re‐epithelialisation of organ cultured human wounded skin. This result fits with our results of scratch assay using HaCaT KCs, ACA significantly stimulated wound closure in situ. This suggested that ACA had wound healing‐promoting effect in human skin.ConclusionWe found that ACA had wound‐healing promoting effects by stimulating ERK/MAPK and PI3K activation. ACA might be a novel agent for treating chronic wounds.