Effects of Kacip Fatimah (Labisia pumila) Water Extract Cream on Gene Analysis Involved in Wound Healing Process Through the Study of in vitro 3D Human Skin Model and in vivo Rat Model)

This study reported the treatment effects of two cream preparations each containing 1% water extract for two variations of L. pumila namely var. alata dan var. pumila on wound healing based on experiments using rat model and three dimensional (3D) human skin model, Epiderm Full Thickness (Mat Tek Corporation, USA) through wound closure assessment and analysis of selected gene expression for skin tissue wound healing mechanism (TGF-1, IL-6, EGF, CBL genes and COL3A1 for rats; the genes IL-10, TGF beta-1 and COL3A1 for humans) using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) approach. After treatment, the lesion area on the skin of the upper body of the rats was measured on days 2, 5 and 8, as well as sampled for gene expression analysis. For in vitro experiments of human skin tissue, changes to each layer of lesion made on the skin tissue were observed through histological observations and analyzed for gene expression profiles based on 2nd, 4th, and 6th day intervals. Water extract treatments of L. pumila of both variations was found to be only effective in helping wound closure for female rats at 79.58% for var. alata on the 5th day of treatment and 75.97 and 95.04% for var. pumila on the 5th and 8th day of treatment, respectively, but was ineffective in male rats. However, in terms of the period of complete wound closure, it was found that all treatments showed that the wound closed faster than the control (17 days), which is between 12 and 13 days. Gene analysis for rat wound samples showed increased gene levels involving only the IL-6 gene for male rats treated with L. pumila var. alata with a total of 1722784 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) copy number on day 2 of treatment, the CBL gene for female mice treated with L. pumila var. alata totaled 46137 mRNA copy number on day 5, and the COL3A1 gene for the treatments of L. pumila var. alata for both sex groups, with total of 2.44x10(8) mRNA copy number (females) and 3.91x10(8) mRNA copy number (males), respectively. Based on histological observation of human skin tissue-constructed wound samples, treatments of both variants of L. pumila showed a cell projection effect from the growth wound area but gene analysis showed insignificant changes to the study genes. Overall, the results of this study can indicate the potential of L. pumila in wound healing but needs to be further strengthened in the future through more optimal in vivo and in vitro experimental strategies.