Nattokinase istone H1 kinase were modulated in keratinocytes during wound healing. Interestingly, it was found that all the herbal extracts exerted a suppressive effect on the keratinocyte proliferation beyond a certain concentration. A similar observation has been reported previously. This phenomenon is possibly due to the complicated composition of the herbal extracts. Hence an appropriate dosage of the herbal medicine should be carefully selected in clinical application. In addition, it is necessary to identify the components of the herbal extracts that function in promoting keratinocyte proliferation in order to reduce the side effects of other components in the herbal medicine. It was significant to have found that the herbal extract chondroitin inhibitor could still promote the keratinocyte proliferation under a high glucose condition found in diabetic patients. A non healing wound is a common problem in these patients that may lead to diabetic foot ulceration. The delay in wound healing may be due to the inhibitory effect of high glucose on keratinocyte proliferation.
Hence, the promoting effect of the herbal disufenton sodium 168021-79-2 extracts may counterbalance the negative effect of high glucose on the keratinocyte growth and may benefit the wound healing in diabetic patients. Indeed the current study showed that NF3 produced a similar stimulatory action on keratinocyte proliferation in the high glucose condition, producing a strong clinical implication for diabetic ulcers. The mechanisms by which the Radix Astragali and Radix Rehmanniae extracts influence keratinocyte proliferation are not clear. It has been found that growth factor receptors play an important role in mediating the action on keratinocyte proliferation, in particular at the proliferative stage of wound healing. In this regard, various cells would interact with each other by producing numerous growth factors and exerting effects through cell surface receptors. Therefore it was assumed that herbal extracts might influence cell proliferation through cell surface receptors. Since the MEK/ERK signaling pathway plays a key role in mediating the elesclomol functions of various G protein coupled receptors in regulating the cellular processes such as cell proliferation, cell cycle, cell survival, angiogenesis and cell migration, the study investigated if the promoting effect of the herbal extracts could be affected by the MEK/ERK inhibitor U0126.
The results showed that in the presence ofU0126, none of the herbal extracts could exert any promoting effect on keratinocyte growth, implicating the roles of G protein coupled receptors in mediating the effect of the herbs. The study also investigated the effect of the specific EGFR inhibitor AG1478 as well to determine whether such an inhibitor could nullify the stimulatory actions of the herbal extracts. Indeed the inhibitory effect was observed not only for stachyose but also for extract P2 2. However, NF3 still showed some stimulating effect on cell growth. It was found that the chemical profiles are different in the pancreatic NF3 and P2 2 fractions. Therefore the differences in the effects of the herbal extracts are possibly due to the different compositions and concentrations of different components in these extracts. Fromthe results it is suggested that EGFR alone mediates the effects of stachyose .