The four-herb Chinese medicine ANBP enhances wound healing and inhibits scar formation via bidirectional regulation of transformation growth factor pathway.

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)-ß1-mediated signalling pathways through Smad-dependent pathways. ANBP treatment significantly increased expression of TGF-ß1 and Smad2/3 mRNA at the early stage of wound healing, and led to markedly decrease expression of TGF-ß1 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-ß1/Smad pathway in promoting wound healing and alleviating scar formation, which may be an effective therapy for human wounds at the earliest stage.

Production of monoclonal antibodies recognizing human hair follicle keratinocytes.

To raise new antibodies against the cells contained in human hair follicles, we immunized mice with a mixture of primary cultured human embryogenic keratinocytes thought to contain very immature keratinocytes, as antigen. Using a monoclonal antibody (MAb) producing technique, we obtained two MAbs, which recognize a specific portion of the hair follicle. MAb-8G2 was specific to the companion layer between the inner and outer root sheath of the follicle. This pattern of recognition was quite similar to the expression pattern of K6hf protein, a human hair follicle-specific type II cytokeratin. MAb-sDP showed unique recognition. Immunohistochemistry indicated that MAb-sDP specifically recognized the cells surrounding the dermal papilla (DP). These cells are possibly the germ line cells of hair matrix.