Hypericum aqueous extract promotes skin wound healing by modulating the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway

This study investigated the promotional effect of Hypericum aqueous extract on the healing of rabbit skin wounds and its possible mechanism. Sixteen New Zealand rabbits were modelled as skin defect trauma, and each rabbit had three wounds on the back skin, which were saline (Control), Hypericum aqueous extract (HAE), and Yunnan Baiyao (YNBY), and the wounds were cleaned and changed daily. The therapeutic effects were evaluated by wound gross observation, wound healing rate, and wound healing time, respectively, and we found that HAE could promote the wound healing rate. Histopathological staining observations showed that HAE improved the histologic changes of the wound and reduced the amount of inflammation. In addition, through the network pharmacology study, we obtained that the target of action was mainly focused on biological processes such as epithelial cell proliferation and signaling pathways such as PI3K-Akt, and the core targets included VEGFA, etc.; the validation results demonstrated that HAE significantly inhibited the expression of PI3K, P-PI3K, Akt and P-Akt, and it could increase the expression of VEGF, which helped to restore the vascularization of the wounds. In conclusion, Hypericum aqueous extract may promote wound healing by regulating the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.