Abstract
The current study was designed to investigate the effect of madecassoside, the major
triterpene in Centella asiatica, on burn wound healing and its possible mechanism of action. An oral administration
of madecassoside (6, 12, 24 mg/kg) facilitated wound closure in a time-dependent manner
and reached its peak effect, nearly completely wound closure, on day 20 in the group
receiving the highest dose of 24 mg/kg of madecassoside. Further histopathological
analysis revealed that madecassoside alleviated infiltration of inflammatory cells
as well as enhanced epithelisation resulting from dermal proliferation of fibroblasts.
Madecassoside at higher doses (12 and 24 mg/kg) decreased nitric oxide (NO) levels
and malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the burn skin tissue. However, reduced glutathione
(GSH) and hydroxyproline levels were increased in the same skin tissue. In addition,
madecassoside promoted skin angiogenesis in vivo, correlating with our findings in vitro that it stimulated endothelial cell growth in a rat aortic ring assay. These data
suggest that madecassoside has significant wound-healing activity and is one of the
major reasons for the use of C. asiatica herbs in the successful treatment of burn injury. Moreover, the results from the
present study indicate that the effect of madecassoside on wound healing may involve
several mechanisms including antioxidative activity, collagen synthesis and angiogenesis.
Key words
Madecassoside -
Centella asiatica
- Umbelliferae - burn wound - oxidative stress - collagen synthesis - angiogenesis
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Dr. Yue Dai
Department of Pharmacology of Chinese Materia Medica
China Pharmaceutical University
1 Shennong Road
Nanjing 210038
People’s Republic of China
Phone: +86-25-8539-1258
Email: yuedaicpu@hotmail.com
