Galactomannan of Delonix regia seeds modulates cytokine expression and oxidative stress eliciting anti-inflammatory and healing effects in mice cutaneous wound.

The galactomannans property of forming viscous solutions, along with the traditional use of Delonix regia as anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive and wound healing, justify the investigation of the healing mechanism of Delonix regia galactomannan (GM-DR) in a model of excisional cutaneous wound. GM-DR (% 0.01-1) was topically applied to the wounds of female Swiss mice during 14 days. The wound healing effect of GM-DR was evaluated by the following parameters: wound closure and clinical signs (hyperemia, edema and exudate by macroscopy, nociception by analgesimetry), oxidative stress markers (malondialdehyde - MDA, reduced glutathione - GSH) by ELISA, histopathological (HE and Picrosirius red), and histomorphometric (collagenesis, blood vessels, polymorphonuclear, mononuclear, fusiform cells) and immunohistochemistry (inflammatory and growth factor mediators) by tissue microarrayer. GM-DR reduced wound area (7-14th day) and hypernociception (6 h - 5th day), leukocyte infiltration (2 -7th days), expression and levels of IL-1ß (2th day), IL-6 (2th day), MDA (44% - 2th day), and increased fusiform cells, granulation tissue, collagen deposition, GSH (25 - 50%, 2-5th day), expression of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß) (7-10th day) and smooth muscle alpha actin (α-SMA) (7-14th day). In conclusion, GM-DR accelerates the mice healing process acting both in the inflammatory and proliferative phases.

Structural characteristics are crucial to the benefits of guar gum in experimental osteoarthritis.

Protein-free guar gum (DGG) was oxidized (DGGOX) or sulfated (DGGSU) by insertion of new groups in C-6 (manose) and C-6 (galactose), for DGGOX and DGGSU, respectively. Rats were subjected to anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) of the knee, joint pain recorded using the articular incapacitation test, and the analgesic effect of intraarticular 100µg DGG, DGGOX or DGGSU solutions at days 4-7 was evaluated. Other groups received DGG or saline weekly, from days 7 to 70 and joint damage assessed using histology and biochemistry as the chondroitin sulfate (CS) content of cartilage. The molar mass of CS samples was obtained by comparing their relative electrophoretic mobility to standard CS. DGG but not DGGOX or DGGSU significantly inhibited joint pain. DGG significantly reversed the increase in CS, its reduced electrophoretic mobility, and histological changes following ACLT, as compared to vehicle. Structural integrity accounts for DGG benefits in experimental osteoarthritis.

Low viscosity hydrogel of guar gum: preparation and physicochemical characterization.

Guar gum was cross-linked with glutaraldehyde and characterized by GPC, rheology, WADX, SEM and TGA. This guar gum is a galactomannan polysaccharide, that contains small amount of arabinose, glucose and uronic acid, besides galactose and mannose. The polymer has high molar mass, with Mw, Mn and Mv values of 2.0x10(6), 1.2x10(6) and 1.9x10(6)g/mol, respectively. The reticulation follows a slow process and lead to a viscosity increase of 40 times compared with the original gum solution. The final viscosity was similar to that of Hylan G-F 20, a hyaluronate derivative, commercially used in viscosupplementation treatment. The gel contains 95.6% of water and the amount of residual glutaraldehyde is much lower than the LD-50. Porous structure was detected by SEM and thermal stability was improved by the cross-linking. The low viscosity, the small amount of remained glutaraldehyde, and the thermal stability indicates that the guar hydrogel has potential to be applied as biomaterial with specific rheological requirements.