Review Peptides for Skin Protection and Healing in Amphibians Ilaria Demori 1, Zeinab El Rashed 1, Viola Corradino 1, Annamaria Catalano 2, Leila Rovegno 1, Linda Queirolo 1, Sebastiano Salvidio 1, Emanuele Biggi 3, Matteo Zanotti-Russo 4, Laura Canesi 1, Alessandro Catenazzi 5 and Elena Grasselli 1,* 1 Dipartimento Scienze della Terra dell’Ambiente e della Vita –DISTAV, Università degli Studi di Genova – 16132 Genova, Italy;
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[email protected] (L.C.) 2 iDelivery iSrl, Via Eremo al Santuario n.75/A, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy;
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[email protected] Tel: +39-010-35338257 Received: 19 December 2018; Accepted: 17 January 2019; Published: 18 January 2019 Abstract: Amphibian skin is not to be considered a mere tegument; it has a multitude of functions related to respiration, osmoregulation, and thermoregulation, thus allowing the individuals to survive and thrive in the terrestrial environment. Moreover, amphibian skin secretions are enriched with several peptides, which defend the skin from environmental and pathogenic insults and exert many other biological effects. In this work, the beneficial effects of amphibian skin peptides are reviewed, in particular their role in speeding up wound healing and in protection from oxidative stress and UV irradiation.