Effects of hydrogen-occluding-silica microparticles on wound repair and cell migratory behavior of normal human esophageal epitheliocytes

Many conventional studies on molecular hydrogen have not examined cell migration ability and the relationship between apoptosis and the cytoskeleton. Here we investigated the influence of hydrogen-occluding silica microparticles (H2-silica) on cell migration motility and changes of the cytoskeleton (F-actin) in normal human esophageal epithelial cells (HEEpiCs). As the results, cell migration was promoted, and formation of microvilli was activated in the 100 ppm (low concentration) scratched group. After performing a wound healing assay, cells exhibited migration after 48 hours and 72 hours for both 10 ppm and 100 ppm groups, suggesting that the wound-repairing effects could be attributed to the antioxidant ability of H2-silica. In scratched groups, high levels of activated caspase-3 were relatively expressed and presented a tendency to increase the observed Bax/Bcl-2 ratio at more than 300 ppm groups. The above-mentioned results show that H2-silica induced apoptosis in HEEpiCs, especially in the scratched cells. Toxicity may cause an exaggerated apoptosis. Furthermore, since the ratio of fascin/tubulin in the 100, 300, and 600 ppm groups tended to increase in both the scratched and the non-scratched control groups, H2-silica was thought to be able to promote fascin action on normal cells and may be have a proliferative effect.