ATLA::Alternatives to Laboratory Animals

Volume 28, Number 1

Testing wound-healing activity in T15 fibroblast cultures: a morphometric analysis.

ATLA 28, 41-51, January/February 2000

Seval Korkmaz,1,2 Hülya Zeytinoglu,3 Melih Zeytinoglu,3 Süleyman Aydin,1,2 Yusuf Öztürk1,2 and Hüsnücan Baser2,4

1Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy; 2Medicinal and Aromatic Plant and Drug Research Centre; 3Department of Biology, Faculty of Science; 4Department of Pharmagonosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Anadolu University, 26470 Eskisehir, Turkey

SUMMARY

The purpose was to evaluate the use of mouse T15 fibroblast cell cultures for the investigation of wound-healing activity. In order to investigate their mechanisms of action, the effects of drugs with wound-healing activities were compared by using morphometric analyses by microscopy after cell staining. A number of parameters were used to evaluate the effects of titrated extracts from Centella asiatica and dexpanthenol (drugs that have been used in medical practice for their wound-healing activities) on cultured mouse T15 fibroblasts. These parameters were: the total number of cells; the number of T15 cells in mitosis; the percentages of fusiform, polygonal, round and vacuole-containing cells; and the number of intracellular collagen granules. The results indicate that these two drugs exhibit wound-healing activities by activating fibroblast cells, and have cytoprotective effects, although their mechanisms of action on mouse T15 fibroblasts were different. On the basis of our findings, mouse T15 fibroblast cell cultures seem to be useful for the pharmacological screening of compounds with wound-healing activity.

Keywords: wound-healing, dexpanthenol, Centella asiatica, T15 fibroblasts, cell line, cell culture, morphometric analysis