[The study of enhancement effect on wound healing from acid/heat stable peptides derived from pig serum]

It was reported in this article that a preparation of acid/heat-stable peptides (AHSP) from pig serum with a molecular-weight less than 18 ku a without antigenity and toxicity could exert enhancement effect on wound healing. Two pieces of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) sponge implanted in rat dorsal subcutaneous pouchs of 20 mice were selected as the wound model. The subcutaneous pouch having one piece of sponge was taken as the experimental group and the other as the control. Injection of 50 microliters of such peptide preparation into the test sponge was performed once a day from the time of injury on for 5 consecutive times, while 50 microliters of BSA (5 mg/ml) into the control sponge in the same way. The levels of total DNA, protein and hydroproline in AHSP-treated sponge were observed significantly higher than those in the control sponge on the 7th and 10th days after wounding (P < 0.05). No significant difference was seen on the 14th postinjury day (P > 0.05). The effect of AHSP on proliferation of wound fibroblast cultured in vitro was also detected. In conclusion, such peptides derived from pig serum had the activity to accelerate wound healing without resultant excessive healing and its direct stimulation of the proliferation of wound fibroblast was probably one of the way which AHSP exerted its action.