Open Wound Healing In Vivo: Monitoring Binding and Presence of Adhesion/Growth-Regulatory Galectins in Rat Skin during the Course of Complete Re-Epithelialization.
Abstract
Galectins are a family of carbohydrate-binding proteins that modulate inflammation and immunity. This functional versatility prompted us to perform a histochemical study of their occurrence during wound healing.
In this study antibodies against keratins-10 and -14, wide-spectrum cytokeratin, vimentin, fibronectin, and galectins-1, -2, and -3 were applied to frozen sections of skin specimens two, seven, and twenty-one days after wounding. The presence of binding sites for galectins-1, -2, -3, and -7 was determined using labeled proteins as probes.
Our study detected a series of alterations in galectin parameters during different phases of wound healing. Presence of galectin-1 increased during the early phase of healing, whereas galectin-3 rapidly decreased in newly formed granulation tissue.
In addition, nuclear reactivity of epidermal cells for galectin-2 occurred seven days post-trauma. The dynamic regulation of galectins during epithelization intimates a role of these proteins in wound healing.