Abstract
Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is important for promoting skin repair and remodeling. Native collagen is also widely used as a scaffold for skin tissue engineering. The limitations of EGF include easy decomposition or inactivation, whereas native collagen is immunogenic and has poor solubility. Therefore, we constructed a freeze-dried dressing based on the recombinant human-like collagen (RHC) to act as a carrier for EGF (RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing) and promote skin wound closure. Here, the freeze-dried dressing that combined EGF and RHC significantly enhanced the proliferation, adhesion, and spreading of NIH/3T3 fibroblasts and migration of HaCaT keratinocytes at the wound site. The physicochemical characteristics of the RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing investigated using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry revealed that it was a loose and porous cake that redissolved quickly. The molecular mechanisms involved in cell proliferation and angiogenesis were also assessed. The expression levels of the markers Ki-67, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, vascular endothelial growth factor, and cluster of differentiation 31 were significantly increased after treatment with the RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing (P < 0.01, vs. RHC or EGF alone). This increase indicated that the RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing significantly accelerated wound closure, re-epithelialization, and the orderly arrangement and deposition of collagen in the Sprague–Dawley rats with full-thickness skin defects. This work describes a significant step toward the development of wound environments conducive to healing, and the RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing is a potential therapeutic strategy in wound management.
Highlights
Chronic wounds that are labeled as complex and hard-to-heal, as well as those leading to amputations, are health problems that have devastating consequences for patients, healthcare systems, and societies (Olsson et al, 2019)
We constructed recombinant human-like collagen (RHC) according to the construction schematic shown for the recombinant plasmid of pET3c-hlcollagen (Figure 1A)
When the cells were cultured on substrates containing various freeze-dried combinations of RHC and Epidermal growth factor (EGF), our results showed that the RHC/EGF (1:1) freeze-dried dressing had the strongest effect on proliferation (Supplementary Figure 3)
Summary
Chronic wounds that are labeled as complex and hard-to-heal, as well as those leading to amputations, are health problems that have devastating consequences for patients, healthcare systems, and societies (Olsson et al, 2019). Zhao et al (2020) prepared physical double-network removable hydrogel adhesives with both increased wound healing efficiency and photothermal antibacterial activities. This was achieved via catechol–Fe 3+ coordination with quadruple hydrogenbonding cross-linked amphiphilic polyester and gelatin (Zhao et al, 2020). Epidermal growth factor (EGF) plays a critical role in initiating and sustaining the different phases of wound healing (Hardwicke et al, 2008). We constructed a freeze-dried dressing based on recombinant human-like collagen (RHC) and EGF to generate a multifunctional product that can improve cell–biomaterial interactions and promote wound healing
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