Modulation of wound healing regulators by thermal spring water from La Bourboule

Abstract Thermal spring waters have been a source of treatment for curing or alleviating symptoms of various pathologies. However, despite some supporting literature of the late 19 th century, there has been a gradual decrease in their use as the exact mechanisms remained unknown. The thermal spring water from La Bourboule (BW) in Central France, is still being used for treating skin diseases. To decipher how BW has beneficial effects on wound healing, we cultured HaCaT keratinocytes with increasing percentages of BW and analysed their properties by a scratch assay. Production of cytokines, metallopeptidases, and accumulation of mRNA of genes encoding proteins involved in wound healing processes were also investigated. Our results show that BW significantly increases the wound healing capacities of HaCaT cells by 12% at 24h, paralleled with a significant increase of TGFb1-3 mRNA accumulation (1.3 to 2.2-fold) and TGFb1 production (1.3-fold) at 24h. Conversely, MMPs’ mRNA and/or peptides are reduced. IL6, TNFa and other factors playing in the wound healing processes are modulated at transcript and/or protein levels. Altogether, this study suggests that BW modulates, in vitro , the growth and functioning of keratinocytes through molecular mechanisms, which deserve to be investigated further.