Antibodies to wounded tissue enhance cutaneous wound healing

The wound repair process is a highly ordered sequence of events that encompasses haemostasis, inflammatory cell infiltration, tissue regrowth and remodelling. Wound healing follows tissue destruction so we hypothesized that antibodies might bind to wounded tissues, which would facilitate the engulfment of damaged tissues by macrophages. Here, we show that B cells, which produce antibodies to damaged tissues, are engaged in the process of wound healing. Splenectomy delayed wound healing, and transfer of spleen cells into splenectomized mice recovered the delay in wound healing. Furthermore, wound healing in splenectomized nude mice was also delayed. Transfer of enriched B220⁺ cells by magnetic beads accelerated wound healing in splenectomized mice. We detected immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) binding to wounded tissues by using fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled anti-IgG1 6-24 hr after wounding. Splenectomy reduced the amount of IgG1 binding to wounded tissues. Immunoblotting studies revealed several bands, which were reduced by splenectomy. Using immunoprecipitation with anti-IgG bound to protein G we found that the intensity of several bands was lower in the serum from splenectomized mice than in that from sham-operated mice. These bands were matched to myosin IIA, carbamoyl-phosphate synthase, argininosuccinate synthase, actin and α-actinin-4 by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis.