Chemical characterization of active components derived from garlic scales and their potential applications in Tissue Engineering

Abstract

To overcome the drawbacks of conventional organ transplants, a new approach has been developed to replace damaged tissues with tissue engineered construct. For this purpose, it is important to regulate cell adhesion, migration and proliferation in order to achieve a substantial percentage of therapeutic efficacy. Garlic is one of the most researched bulbs owing to its high medicinal value. Garlic scales have been chemically characterized by extraction to observe their effects on cell physiology. UV-Visible characterization of the scales suggested presence of proteins which was confirmed later using SDS PAGE. Aqueous solvent gave a significant amount of extracts so it was used for all the further experiments. Using Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy, presence of some functional groups were confirmed out of which thiol group suggested traces of allicin in the scales which is present largely in the bulk garlic. Proteins from various sources act as cell growth modulators so the protein from the scales was tested for cell viability and antimicrobial activity. Proteins were concentrated using lyophilisation. Three different cell lines namely HaCaT, HeLa and MG63 were used. Three sample concentrations were prepared: 1mg/ml, 100µg/ml and 10µg/ml. The samples didn’t show any antimicrobial activity inferring either they lack antimicrobial properties or the concentration of the samples is too low to cause any effect. The sample having concentration 10µg/ml enhanced cell adhesion of MG63 cells considerably. Migration studies were conducted which varied for different cell lines at different concentrations. Samples showed a very positive effect on the HeLa cell viability at every concentration by a considerable increase in the cell proliferation. In conclusion, active components from garlic scales can be used as a biological response modifier for tissue engineering applications.