Film-forming polymer solutions containing cholesterol myristate and berberine mediate pressure ulcer repair via the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

Abstract

Pressure ulcer (PU) is a worldwide problem that is difficult to address because of the related inflammatory response, local hypoxia, and repeated ischaemia/reperfusion, causing great suffering and financial burden to patients. Traditional Chinese medicine turtle plate powder can treat skin trauma, but its composition is complex and inconvenient to use. Here, we combined cholesterol myristate (S8) with berberine (BBR), with anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects, as a drug and used hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and polyvinylpyrrolidone K30 as carriers to construct a novel film-forming polymeric solution (S8 + BBR FFPS), comprehensively study its reparative effect on PU and explore the potential mechanism in rat PU models. The results showed that S8 + BBR FFPS inhibits excessive inflammatory response, promotes re-epithelialization, and promotes hair follicle growth during the healing process of PU, which may be related to the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway by S8 + BBR FFPS to mediate hair follicle stem cell proliferation and maintain skin homeostasis. Therefore, S8 + BBR FFPS may be a potential candidate for the treatment of chronic skin injury, and its association with the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway may provide new ideas to guide the design of biomaterial-based wound dressings for chronic wound repair.