Acarbose Accelerates Wound Healing via Akt/eNOS Signaling indb/dbMice

Abstract

Refractory wound is a dreaded complication of diabetes and is highly correlated with EPC dysfunction caused by hyperglycemia. Acarbose is a widely used oral glucose-lowering drug exclusively for T2DM. Previous studies have suggested the beneficial effect of acarbose on improving endothelial dysfunction in patients with T2DM. However, no data have been reported on the beneficial efficacy of acarbose in wound healing impairment caused by diabetes. We herein investigated whether acarbose could improve wound healing in T2DMdb/dbmice and the possible mechanisms involved. Acarbose hastened wound healing and enhanced angiogenesis, accompanied by increased circulating EPC number indb/dbmice. In vitro, a reversed BM-EPC dysfunction was observed after the administration of acarbose indb/dbmice, as reflected by tube formation assay. In addition, a significantly increased NO production was also witnessed in BM-EPCs from acarbose treateddb/dbmice, with decreased O2levels. Akt inhibitor could abolish the beneficial effect of acarbose on high glucose induced EPC dysfunction in vitro, accompanied by reduced eNOS activation. Acarbose displayed potential effect in promoting wound healing and improving angiogenesis in T2DM mice, which was possibly related to the Akt/eNOS signaling pathway.