ABSTRACT
A chronic refractory wound is caused by continuous skin damage. At the same time， it may be formed due to repeated infection， vascular insufficiency， diabetes， tumors， chronic osteomyelitis， and other reasons， resulting in wound repair interruption and recovery delay. Chronic refractory wound seriously affects the quality of life of patients and consumes a lot of medical resources. Polysaccharides in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） are the effective components of most TCM. Modern pharmacological studies have found that polysaccharides contained in TCM have anti-inflammatory， antioxidant， anti-radiation， hypoglycemic， antiviral， anti-tumor， hypolipidemic， and immunomodulatory effects. Through the summary and analysis of the literature， it was found that the mechanism of polysaccharides in TCM to promote chonic refractory wound repair was mainly realized from the following aspects： firstly， regulating inflammatory cytokines like interleukin-4 （IL-4）， interleukin-10 （IL-10）， interleukin-8 （IL-8）， and tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α） or regulating macrophage-related inflammatory proteins and chemotactic proteins like MIP-2， MCP-1， to shorten the inflammatory period. Secondly， activating growth factors like platelet-derived growth fator （PDGF）， basic fibroblast growth factor （bFGF）， TGF-α， and vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF） to recruit endothelial cells and fibroblasts into tissue proliferation. Thirdly， activationg VEGF and its downstream receptor vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 （VEGFR-1） and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 （VEGFR-2）-mediatated protein kinase C/extracellular regulated kinases （PKC/ERK） signaling pathway or promoting angiogenesie and improving wound blood flow through angiotensin （ANG）. Fourthly， promoting the ablility of collagen synthesis by enhancing the secretion of hydroxyproline and hyaluronic acid （HA） from fibroblasts （FB） and regulating relevant matrix metalloenzymes and their enzyme inhibitor to regulate the extracellular matrix. Fifthly， eliminating free radiccals to reduce the damage caused by oxidative stress to tissue. Sixthly， enhancing the phagocytic ability of macrophages， the activity of natural killer cells， and the proliferation of T cells to improve the defense ability of tissue. Polysaccharides in TCM can repair wounds in many ways at the same time. Its advantage lies in the multiple targets and multiple pathways. It is expected that the research will pay more attention to the mechanism of wound repair by polysaccharide components in TCM when improving the treatment of chronic refractory wounds.
