Xyloglucan and Concanavalin A based dressings in the topical treatment of mice wound healing process

• Xyloglucan dressings provide a safe protection to the wound during healing. • Xyloglucan dressings containing ConA maintained a controlled release manner. • XG and XGL are non-toxic and accelerate the wound healing. • XG and XGL modulate pro-inflammatory cytokines. • XGL up and down-regulate the important proteins expression involved in wound repair. For medical biomaterials, xyloglucan dispersions can form films or gels to be applied as a wound dressing. For this purpose, the structural characterization of xyloglucan dressing (XG) and xyloglucan dressing containing 0.5 mg/mL of concanavalin A (XGL) was performed. The lectin release capacity and stability, cytotoxicity, and pro-wound healing effects were also investigated. XG and XGL films were prepared by mixing 0.5 % (w/v) xyloglucan with 0.3 % (v/v) glycerol. The ConA incorporated in the xyloglucan dressing maintained its biological activity for fourteen days in a controlled-release manner. The films were non-toxic, homogeneous, flexible, and accelerated the wound contraction compared with the control group, promoting less infiltration of inflammatory cells, angiogenesis, remodeling, and early epithelization. The films also alleviate the inflammation phase by reducing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-12), especially the XGL film, which promoted the up- and down-regulation of important proteins associated with the wound repair. All these findings suggest that XG and XGL films may represent a good therapeutic approach for wound healing applications.