Evaluation of Wound Healing Accelerators-Cartilage Powder, Chitin, and N-Acetyl Glucosamine - in Human Fibroblast Cultures

Crude cartilage powder does not accelerate cellular proliferation in newly established human fetal skin fibroblast cultures at concentrations of 0.3 or 30 microg/ml. Collagen biosynthesis is not increased in confluent cultures of human fetal or adult skin fibroblasts by addition of saline or distilled water extracts of cartilage powder at medium concentrations of 30 or 100 microg/ml. Neither N-acetyl glucosamine nor its polymeric form, chitin, has a consistent stimulatory or inhibitory influence on collagen biosynthesis in confluent cultures at final concentrations of 5.0, 50, or 500 microg/ml. The results are taken as evidence that cartilage powder and its extracts and related compounds to not directly influence collagen production in the tissue culture system. The suggestion is made that perhaps the known effects of cartilage powder on wound tensile strength in vivo are exerted by an indirect mechanism as through provision of a matrix material for collagen aggregation. (Author)