Sedum telephium L. polysaccharide content affects MRC5 cell adhesion to laminin and fibronectin

In traditional medicine the fresh leaves and juice of Sedum telephium L. ar e used as wound-healing promoters. Cell adhesion represents a primary event in wound repair and in tissue homeostasis, and therefore we have investiga ted the effect of Sedum juice and its main fractions, polysaccharides and f lavonols, on human fibroblast (MRCS) adhesion to fibronectin and laminin. Our findings revealed that total Sedum juice strongly inhibited cell adhesi on to laminin and fibronectin (EC50 1.03 +/- 0.12 mg mL(-1)). This anti-adh esive feature was concentrated mainly in the two polysaccharide fractions ( EC50 values comprised between 0.09 and 0.44 mg mL(-1)). The flavonol fracti ons did not seem to contribute to this effect. A first attempt to elucidate the polysaccharide-related anti-adhesive featu re of Sedum juice was also performed. The results confirmed that natural polysaccharides, with chemical structure s different from heparin, were able to interfere with integrin-mediated cel l behaviour and they contributed to the outstanding effects of Sedum juice and to the role of polysaccharides in cell-matrix interaction.