[Wound healing effect of peptide fractions from Phaseolus lunatus proteins by enzymatic hydrolysis]

Introduction: protein hydrolysates from plant seeds are a source of bioactive peptides. However, no studies on wound healing activity have been published. Objective: to evaluate the healing effect in vivo (in mice) of enzymatic hydrolysates of Phaseolus lunatus using pepsin, pancreatin, the pepsin-pancreatin sequential system and the peptide fractions of each hydrolysate, greater and less than 10 kDa. Methods: the wound healing tests were performed on mice divided in groups of five mice per treatment. The wounds were monitored with a stereomicroscope (Stemi™ DV4), measuring the area with photographs on days 0, 1, 3, 6, 8 and 10. The time elapsed from the formation of each wound to 80% reduction of its area was calculated. Finally, the fraction or hydrolysate amino acid residues that showed greater wound healing activity were identified by HPLC chromatography (Agilent 1100 series). Results: the wounds treated with pancreatin hydrolysate (PanH) and with its fraction greater than 10 kDa (PanF1) showed 80% of healing at 2.86 and 3.03 days, respectively, while this occurred using the control at 5.04 days. These represented the greatest wound healing activity of all the treatments. The analysis of the amino acids determined an important presence of hydrophobic and basic residues that contributed significantly to wound healing. Conclusion: the PanH hydrolysate, obtained from the protein concentrate of Phaseolus lunatus, and its fraction greater than 10 kDa could be used to encourage wound healing.