Body protective compound-157 enhances alkali-burn wound healing in vivo and promotes proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis in vitro

Abstract

Tonglie Huang,1,* Kuo Zhang,2,* Lijuan Sun,3 Xiaochang Xue,1 Cun Zhang,1 Zhen Shu,1 Nan Mu,1 Jintao Gu,1 Wangqian Zhang,1 Yukun Wang,1 Yingqi Zhang,1 Wei Zhang1 1State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, The Fourth Military Medical University, 2National Engineering Research Center for Miniaturized Detection Systems, School of Life Sciences, Northwest University, 3Department of Ophthalmology, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Chemical burns take up a high proportion of burns admissions and can penetrate deep into tissues. Various reagents have been applied in the treatment of skin chemical burns; however, no optimal reagent for skin chemical burns currently exists. The present study investigated the effect of topical body protective compound (BPC)-157 treatment on skin wound healing, using an alkali burn rat model. Topical treatment with BPC-157 was shown to accelerate wound closure following an alkali burn. Histological examination of skin sections with hematoxylin–eosin and Masson staining showed better granulation tissue formation, reepithelialization, dermal remodeling, and a higher extent of collagen deposition when compared to the model control group on the 18th day postwounding. BPC-157 could promote vascular endothelial growth factor expression in wounded skin tissues. Furthermore, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide and cell cycle analysis demonstrated that BPC-157 enhanced the proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Transwell assay and wound healing assay showed that BPC-157 significantly promoted migration of HUVECs. We also observed that BPC-157 upregulated the expression of VEGF-a and accelerated vascular tube formation in vitro. Moreover, further studies suggested that BPC-157 regulated the phosphorylation level of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) as well as its downstream targets, including c-Fos, c-Jun, and Egr-1, which are key molecules involved in cell growth, migration, and angiogenesis. Altogether, our results indicated that BPC-157 treatment may accelerate wound healing in a model of alkali burn-induced skin injury. The therapeutic mechanism may be associated with accelerated granulation tissue formation, reepithelialization, dermal remodeling, and collagen deposition through ERK1/2 signaling pathway. Keywords: pentadecapeptide BPC-157, wound healing, human umbilical vein endothelial cells, ERK1/2 signaling pathway