Carboxymethylated yeast β-glucan: Biological activity screening in zebrafish, sprayable hydrogel preparation, and wound healing study in diabetic mice.

Yeast β-glucan exhibits dramatic potential as wound healing regent owing to its various biological properties including immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant. But, the poor water solubility of yeast β-glucan limits its application. In this study, some carboxymethylated yeast β-glucans (CMGs) with different substitution degree was prepared. The effect of substitution degree on biological activities of carboxymethylated yeast β-glucan was investigated using zebrafish model. CMG with substitution degree 0.55 showed anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory activities in zebrafish. CMG also showed potential ability to promote angiogenesis and caudal fin regeneration. The cytotoxicity of CMG was investigated on L929 cells and the effect of CMG on cell migration was studied by scratch test. The hemolysis ratio of CMG was determined, and the in vitro antioxidant activity was studied. Next, CMG was used to prepare a sprayable hydrogel through a simple method, and the wound healing ability was studied using a streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice model. The results indicated that CMG-based sprayable hydrogel could accelerate wound healing in a diabetic mice and influence the expression of biomarkers related to inflammatory, macrophage polarization, and angiogenesis.