Investigation of Antioxidant and In Vitro Wound Healing Activity of Fulvic Acid

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the antioxidant and in vitro wound healing activities offulvic acid (FA) purified from Hüsamlar leonardite in Muğla/Turkey. Purified FA was analyzed withFT/IR spectrophotometer and flame photometer for determining functional groups and cationimpurities, respectively. 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 µg mL-1concentrations of FA were tested forantioxidant activity (by using DPPH radical scavenging and H2O2 scavenging assays). Also, effect ofFA on BJ human foreskin fibroblast and HaCaT spontaneously immortalized non-tumorigenic humankeratinocyte cells proliferation was tested by in vitro MTT and WST-8 assays and on cell migration bywound healing assay (scratch assay). The results of the study show that the FA has a low DPPH radicalscavenging activity, but it exhibited high H2O2 scavenging activity at low concentrations. The effect ofFA on the proliferation of BJ and HaCaT cells varied according to the cell type, FA concentration andtreatment time. However, it accelerated wound healing by increasing cell migration, especially inHaCaT cells. 1 and 10 µg mL-1FA had a significant wound healing effect on BJ cells, and allconcentrations of FA had a significant wound healing effect on HaCaT cells at the end of the 24 htreatments.