Chitooligosacarides as Bioactive Molecules: Healing and Anti-Inflammatory Activity
Anti-inflammatory; Healing; Chitooligosaccharides.
Abstract: The skin is essential for survival, when this barrier is broken, the purpose of the repair mechanism is to induce an efficient response to avoid complications from exacerbated inflammation. In this context, chitooligosaccharides (COS) are promising biomolecules that have different biological effects in the literature, however further studies are needed involving their healing and anti-inflammatory activities. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the healing activities of the COS, obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of chitosan in two stages, in the models of cell migration in vitro and in the repair of wounds in vivo, and anti-inflammatory in the models in vivo of xylene-induced ear edema and zymosan-induced air pouch. Gel permeation chromatography and mass spectrometry proved the production of COS with an 80% deacetylation degree with a predominance of hexamers. The COS stimulated the migration of fibroblasts in the highest concentrations tested. The healing effect was confirmed in the surgical wound-induced model, where the COS showed a significant reduction for the groups treated on the seventh day of the experiment. Regarding antiflogistic activity, COS significantly reduced leukocyte migration in the two models tested. The results point to the potential use as a healing and anti-inflammatory of COS for the pharmaceutical area.