Mupirocin Promotes Wound Healing by Stimulating Growth Factor Production and Proliferation of Human Keratinocytes

Danielle Twilley; Oleg Reva; Debra Meyer; Namrita Lall

doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.862112

Mupirocin Promotes Wound Healing by Stimulating Growth Factor Production and Proliferation of Human Keratinocytes

Front Pharmacol. 2022 Apr 11:13:862112. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.862112. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Danielle Twilley¹, Oleg Reva², Debra Meyer³, Namrita Lall^{1

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Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
² Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Centre for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
³ Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁴ School of Natural Resources, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States.
⁵ College of Pharmacy, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, India.
⁶ Bio-Tech Research and Development Institute, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.

Abstract

Mupirocin has been reported for its role in the treatment of infected wounds through its antibacterial activity, however the role of mupirocin in promoting wound healing via alternative mechanisms has not been extensively evaluated. This study aimed to evaluate the potential effect of mupirocin to promote wound healing, not only through its antibacterial activity but by increasing human keratinocyte proliferation and growth factor production. In the scratch assay, using human keratinocytes (HaCat), mupirocin (at 0.1 and 0.2 mM) significantly increased wound closure compared to the vehicle control. Cell viability, measured from the scratch assay, verified the increase in wound closure, where mupirocin at both concentrations showed higher cell viability compared to the vehicle control. In addition, mupirocin at 0.1 mM significantly stimulated the production of hepatocyte growth factor and M-CSF in HaCat cells, whereas at 0.2 mM, PDGF-AA and EPO were increased. The findings of this study suggest that mupirocin, which is commonly used as an antibacterial agent for the treatment of wounds, also facilitates the wound healing process by stimulating the proliferation of human keratinocytes and enhancing the production of several growth factors involved in wound healing. This is the first report on the effect of mupirocin on growth factors expressed by human keratinocytes as well as the stimulation of keratinocyte proliferation.

Keywords: cell proliferation; human growth factors; human keratinocytes; mupirocin; wound healing.