Angiopoietin genes foster wound healing (1). The angiopoietin-1 enzyme is a portion of growth factors (GF) group implicated in pre- and neo-natal vessel formation (angiogenesis) and regulating a plethora of cellular and extracellular matrix processes (2). It involves a multiple of other regulatory roles in the endothelial cells which are conducive to the cell generation and development of extracellular matrix (3). A study showed the angiopoietin-1 enzyme had disparate activities in relation to the growth stages involving various cell types while living organisms are faced with wound stress (4). Two studies have demonstrated that more organ injury and fibrosis arise following elevated inefficient angiogenesis (5, 6). The signaling of this enzyme is most directly represented in angiogenesis, as a result of which new blood capillaries form from previous veins and arteries (7). Angiogenesis enzymes move forward through budding, endothelial cell movement, proliferation, and capillary deformity and stability. They are conducive to assemblage and disassemblage of the interior lining of blood vessels (8). Angiopoietin-1 cytokines affect the control of microvascular porosity, dilation, and constriction by alarming the smooth muscle cells that have surrounded the vessels.
Four angiopoietins have been identified as ANGPT1, ANGPT2, ANGPT3, and ANGPT4 (9, 10). Various extrinsic and intrinsic agents could result in such chronic ailments as diabetic wounds, thermal and radiation burns, injuries, geriatric lesions and other infection lesions such as leishmaniasis(11) which lead the cosmopolitan prevalence of wounds. These are often chronic and refractory to treatment. Almost 15% of patients with diabetes suffering from foot ulcer, their legs are cut off due to disease complications. That is, a foot is globally cut due to diabetes every 30 seconds, while 80% of these cases are preventable (12). Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections that cause them are the most challenging issue facing burn centers. Several of these microorganisms have long been associated with complications in patients admitted to burn therapeutic centers (13, 14). Recently, the effect of the angiopoietin-1 has been implicated in the healing of cerebral malaria (15) and eye diseases (16). Larval (maggot) therapy can be used in the treatment of infectious and diabetic wounds, bed sores, abscessic burns, some types of cancer and bone infection (17). In 1929, William Beer of Johns Hopkins made the first breakthrough in maggot therapy. In the 1940s, advances in the production and use of the antibiotics reduced the related research about maggot therapy (18). The performed clinical studies at the University of California in 1989 showed that this method was very effective in improving the wound healing in infections and gangrene (19). By comparison with the antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, the maggot therapy is considered as a promising method. Lucilia sericata larvae secrete different enzymes which are used in wound healing where one of them is angiopoietin-1. Therefore, maggot therapy is recommended as a selective therapeutic approach due to the diminished risk of damage to the vital organs following infections after surgical operations, speed of treatment, full recovery in patients and the limited use of antibiotics (20).
Further, the use of the L. sericata larvae in maggot therapy has been approved by the federal drug administration (FDA) in 2004 (21). Therefore, the detection and identification of the secreted enzymes by larvae are informative in the design and production of new drugs in the future. One of these enzymes is angiopoietin-1-1 which plays a role in angiogenesis and also stimulates the growth factors (22).
L. sericata distribution is confined to Holarctic and Neotropical zones (23, 24). Its dispersion in Australia, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru is reported elsewhere (25). As well as its presence in Iran (26), L. sericata is regarded as a synanthropic species in close proximity to human residential areas. It is a necrophilic greenbottle insect from the Calliphoridae family (27). Clinically, two significant effects of larval therapy including antibacterial compounds secretion and their debridment activities have been ascribed to them (20). This study aimed to implement the mid-part amplification of angiopoietin-1gene from L. sericata larvae as a potential element in wound healing.