The Four-Herb Chinese Medicine ANBP Enhances Wound Healing and Inhibits Scar Formation via Bidirectional Regulation of Transformation Growth Factor Pathway

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 12; p. e112274
• Main Authors: Hou, Qian, He, Wen-Jun, Hao, Hao-Jie, Han, Qing-Wang, Chen, Li, Dong, Liang, Liu, Jie-Jie, Li, Xiang, Zhang, Ya-Jing, Ma, Ying-Zhi, Han, Wei-Dong, Fu, Xiao-Bing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 09.12.2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Agrimonia eupatoria; Analgesia; Animal models; Animals; Bone morphogenetic proteins; Boswellia; Cell cycle; Chinese medicine; Chromatography; Cicatrix, Hypertrophic - genetics; Cicatrix, Hypertrophic - pathology; Cicatrix, Hypertrophic - physiopathology; Cicatrix, Hypertrophic - prevention & control; Collagen; Collagen - metabolism; Collagens; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - pharmacology; Ear - pathology; Ear - physiopathology; Eutrophication; Extracellular Matrix - drug effects; Extracellular Matrix - metabolism; Fibroblasts; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation - drug effects; Granulation; Growth factors; Hemostasis; Hemostatics; Herbal medicine; Herbs; Hospitals; Inflammation; Inflammation Mediators - metabolism; Laboratory animals; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; mRNA; Nelumbo nucifera; Pain perception; Pathways; Pharmaceuticals; Pollen; Powders; Quality control; Rabbits; Regulation; Scars; Signal transduction; Signal Transduction - drug effects; Skin; Smad protein; Smad Proteins - metabolism; Smad2 protein; Temperature; Traditional Chinese medicine; Transformation; Transforming growth factor; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 - metabolism; Transforming growth factor-b1; Transforming growth factors; Trauma; Typha angustifolia; Wound care; Wound healing; Wound Healing - drug effects; Beijing China; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112274

The four-herb Chinese medicine ANBP is a pulverized mixture of four herbs including Agrimonia Eupatoria (A), Nelumbo Nucifera Gaertn (N), Boswellia Carteri (B) and Pollen Typhae Angustifoliae (P). The combination of the four herbs was first described in Chinese canonical medicine about 2000 years ago for treatment of various trauma disorders, such as hemostasis, antiinflammatory, analgesia, and wound healing, etc. However, the precise mechanisms of ANBP are still unclear. In our study, using rabbit ear hypertrophic scar models of full-thickness skin defect, we showed that local ANBP treatment not only significantly enhanced wound healing by relieving inflammation, increasing formation of granulation tissue and accelerating re-epithelialization, but also reduced scar formation by decreasing collagen production, protuberant height and volume of scars, and increasing collagen maturity. We demonstrated that these effects of ANBP are associated with transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1-mediated signalling pathways through Smad-dependent pathways. ANBP treatment significantly increased expression of TGF-β1 and Smad2/3 mRNA at the early stage of wound healing, and led to markedly decrease expression of TGF-β1 and Smad2/3 compared with the control group after 14 days post-wounding. Taken together, our results defined a bidirectional regulation role of ANBP for TGF-β1/Smad pathway in promoting wound healing and alleviating scar formation, which may be an effective therapy for human wounds at the earliest stage.