Chitosan accelerates the production of osteopontin from polymorphonuclear leukocytes

Chitosan is a copolymer of beta (1 --> 4) glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-glucos amine, which accelerates the infiltration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes ( PMN) in the early phase of wound healing. In the granulation tissue treated with chitosan in canine experimental wound, osteopontin (OPN) was strongly positive in PMN immunohistochemically. OPN is a glycosylated phosphoprotei n and promotes the attachment or spread of a variety of cell types. In addi tion, OPN may play a role in granulomatous inflammation. Production of OPN in PMN was therefore investigated in vitro using human PMN in this study. P MN stimulated with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and chitos an accumulated OPN mRNA, and released OPN into their culture supernatants. These findings suggest that OPN is synthesized by migrating PMN which plays the novel role of regulating the evolution of wound healing with chitosan treatment at the early phase of healing, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.