Project description:Burns, with their high incidence and mortality rates, have a devastating effect on patients. There are still huge challenges in the management of burns. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which have multidirectional differentiation potential, have aroused interest in exploring the capacity for treating different intractable diseases due to their strong proliferation, tissue repair, immune tolerance and paracrine abilities, among other features. Currently, several animal studies have shown that MSCs play various roles and have beneficial effects in promoting wound healing, inhibiting burn inflammation and preventing the formation of pathological scars during burn healing process. The substances MSCs secrete can act on peripheral cells and promote burn repair. According to preclinical research, MSC-based treatments can effectively improve burn wound healing and reduce pain. However, due to the small number of patients and the lack of controls, treatment plans and evaluation criteria vary widely, thus limiting the value of these clinical studies. Therefore, to better evaluate the safety and effectiveness of MSC-based burn treatments, standardization of the application scheme and evaluation criteria of MSC therapy in burn treatment is required in the future. In addition, the combination of MSC pretreatment and dressing materials are also conducive to improving the therapeutic effect of MSCs on burns. In this article, we review current animal research and clinical trials based on the use of stem cell therapy for treating burns and discuss the main challenges and coping strategies facing future clinical applications.
Project description:In a scenario involving a nuclear detonation during war or a terrorist attack, acute radiation exposure combined with thermal and blast effects results in severe skin injury. Although the cutaneous injury in such a scenario may not be lethal, it may lead to inflammation, delayed wound healing and loss of the skin barrier, resulting in an increased risk of infection. In this study, we tested the potential use of timolol, a beta-adrenergic receptor antagonist, to improve epidermal wound closure after combined burn and radiation injury using an ex vivo human skin culture model. Daily application of 10 ? M timolol after combined injury (burn and 10 Gy ex vivo irradiation) increased wound epithelialization by 5-20%. In addition, exposure to 10 Gy significantly suppressed epidermal keratinocyte proliferation by 46% at 48 h postirradiation. Similar to what has been observed in a thermal burn injury, the enzyme phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PNMT), which generates epinephrine, was elevated in the combined thermal burn and radiation wounds. This likely resulted in elevated tissue levels of this catecholamine, which has been shown to delay healing. Thus, with the addition of timolol to the wound to block the binding of locally generated epinephrine to the beta-adrenergic receptor, healing is improved. This work suggests that by antagonizing local epinephrine action within the wound, a beta-adrenergic receptor antagonist such as timolol may be a useful adjunctive treatment to improve healing in the combined burn and radiation injury.
Project description:In recent years, the bioactive factors were utilized in exercise and athletic skin injuries. In this research, the concentrated conditioned medium of hypoxia-preconditioned adipose mesenchymal stem cells, which is rich in bioactive factor, is applied in full-thickness skin defect model to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy. Adipose mesenchymal stem cells were harvested from the abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissues. The surface markers and the potential of differentiation were analyzed. The conditioned medium of hypoxia-preconditioned stem cells was collected and freeze-dried and then applied on the rat full-thickness skin defect model, and the healing time of each group was recorded. Haematoxylin and eosin staining of skin was assessed by microscope. The characteristics of adipose mesenchymal stem cells were similar to those of other mesenchymal stem cells. The concentration of protein in freeze-dried conditioned medium in 1 mL water was about 15 times higher than in the normal condition medium. In vivo, the concentrated hypoxia-preconditioned conditioned medium can reduce the wound size and accelerate the skin wound healing. The concentrated hypoxia-preconditioned adipose mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned medium has great effect on rat model of wound healing, and it would be an ideal agent for wound care in clinical application.
Project description:We previously demonstrated that transplanting mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) improved recovery from brain injury induced by severe intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in newborn rats. To assess the safety and feasibility of MSCs in preterm infants with severe IVH, we performed a phase I dose-escalation clinical trial. The first three patients received a low dose of MSCs (5 × 106 cells/kg), and the next six received a high dose (1 × 107 cells/kg). We assessed adverse outcomes, including mortality and the progress of posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus. Intraventricular transplantation of MSCs was performed in nine premature infants with mean gestational age of 26.1 ± 0.7 weeks and birth weight of 808 ± 85 g at 11.6 ± 0.9 postnatal days. Treatment with MSCs was well tolerated, and no patients showed serious adverse effects or dose-limiting toxicities attributable to MSC transplantation. There was no mortality in IVH patients receiving MSCs. Infants who underwent shunt surgery showed a higher level of interleukin (IL)-6 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) obtained before MSC transplantation in comparison with infants who did not receive a shunt. Levels of IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α in initially obtained CSF correlated significantly with baseline ventricular index. Intraventricular transplantation of allogeneic human UCB-derived MSCs into preterm infants with severe IVH is safe and feasible, and warrants a larger, and controlled, phase II study. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2018;7:847-856.
Project description:The interaction of tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) and its receptor fibroblast growth factor inducible 14 (Fn14) participates in inflammatory responses, fibrosis, and tissue remodeling, which are central in the repair processes of wounds. Fn14 is expressed in main skin cells including dermal fibroblasts. This study was designed to explore the therapeutic effect of TWEAK on experimental burn wounds and the relevant mechanism underlying such function. Third-degree burns were introduced in two BALB/c mouse strains. Recombinant TWEAK was administrated topically, followed by the evaluation of wound areas and histologic changes. Accordingly, the downstream cytokines, inflammatory cell infiltration, and extracellular matrix synthesis were examined in lesional tissue. Moreover, the differentiation markers were analyzed in cultured human dermal fibroblasts upon TWEAK stimulation. The results showed that topical TWEAK accelerated the healing of burn wounds in wild-type mice but not in Fn14-deficient mice. TWEAK strengthened inflammatory cell infiltration, and exaggerated the production of growth factor and extracellular matrix components in wound areas of wild-type mice. Moreover, TWEAK/Fn14 activation elevated the expression of myofibroblastic differentiation markers, including alpha-smooth muscle actin and palladin, in cultured dermal fibroblasts. Therefore, topical TWEAK exhibits therapeutic effect on experimental burn wounds through favoring regional inflammation, cytokine production, and extracellular matrix synthesis. TWEAK/Fn14 activation induces the myofibroblastic differentiation of dermal fibroblasts, partially contributing to the healing of burn wounds.
Project description:BACKGROUND:Clinically, severe burns remain one of the most challenging issues, but an ideal treatment is yet absent. Our purpose is to compare the efficacy of stem cell therapy in a preclinical model of burn wound healing. METHODS:Research reports on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for burn wound healing were retrieved from 5 databases: PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. The primary outcomes reported in this article include the un-healing rate of the wound area, the closure rate, and the wound area. Secondary outcomes included CD-31, vascular density, interleukin (IL)-10, thickness of eschar tissue, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and white blood cell count. Finally, a subgroup analysis was conducted to explore heterogeneity that potentially impacted the primary outcomes. A fixed-effects model with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was performed when no significant heterogeneity existed. Otherwise, a random-effects model was used. All data analysis was conducted by using Engauge Digitizer 10.8 and R software. RESULTS:Twenty eligible articles were finally included in the analysis. Stem cell therapy greatly improved the closure rate (2.00, 95% CI 0.52 to 3.48, p?=?0.008) and compromised the wound area (-?2.36; 95% CI -?4.90 to 0.18; p?=?0.069) rather than the un-healing rate of the wound area (-?11.10, 95% CI -?32.97 to 10.78, p?=?0.320). Though p was 0.069, there was a trend toward shrinkage of the burn wound area after stem cell therapy. Vascular density (4.69; 95% CI 0.06 to 9.31; p?=?0.047) and thickness of eschar tissue (6.56, 95% CI 1.15 to 11.98, p?=?0.017) were also discovered to be significantly improved in the burn site of stem cell-treated animals. Moreover, we observed that animals in the stem cell group had an increased white blood cell count (0.84, 95% CI 0.01 to 1.66, p?=?0.047) 5?days post treatment. Other indicators, such as VEGF (p?=?0.381), CD-31 (p?=?0.335) and IL-10 (p?=?0.567), were not significantly impacted. CONCLUSIONS:Despite limited data from preclinical trials, this meta-analysis suggests that stem cell therapy is curative in decreasing the burn wound area and provides some insights into future clinical studies of stem cell therapy for burns.
Project description:Burns can impair the barrier function of the skin, and small burns can also cause high mortality. The WHO has described that over 180,000 people die of burns worldwide each year. Thus, the treatment of burn wounds is a major clinical challenge. Chitooligosaccharides (COS) are alkaline amino oligosaccharides with small molecular weights obtained by enzyme or chemical degradation of chitosan. With the characteristics of biocompatibility, water solubility and degradability, it has attracted increasing attention in the fields of biomedicine. In the present study, we used COS to treat deep second-degree burn wounds of rat skin and found that COS was able to promote wound healing. We also revealed that COS could promote fibroblast proliferation. Transcriptome sequencing analysis was performed on COS-treated fibroblasts to identify the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that COS was able to promote wound healing through regulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and growth factor Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF). Our results provide a potential drug for burn wound therapy and the related molecular mechanism.
Project description:Severe burns are some of the most challenging problems in clinics and still lack ideal modalities. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) incorporated with biomaterial coverage of burn wounds may offer a viable solution. In this report, we seeded MSCs to a biodegradable hybrid hydrogel, namely ACgel, that was synthesized from unsaturated arginine-based poly(ester amide) (UArg-PEA) and chitosan derivative. MSC adhered to ACgels. ACgels maintained a high viability of MSCs in culture for 6 days. MSC seeded to ACgels presented well in third-degree burn wounds of mice at 8 days postburn (dpb) after the necrotic full-thickness skin of burn wounds was debrided and filled and covered by MSC-carrying ACgels. MSC-seeded ACgels promoted the closure, reepithelialization, granulation tissue formation, and vascularization of the burn wounds. ACgels alone can also promote vascularization but less effectively compared with MSC-seeded ACgels. The actions of MSC-seeded ACgels or ACgels alone involve the induction of reparative, anti-inflammatory interleukin-10, and M2-like macrophages, as well as the reduction of inflammatory cytokine TNFα and M1-like macrophages at the late inflammatory phase of burn wound healing, which provided the mechanistic insights associated with inflammation and macrophages in burn wounds. For the studied regimens of these treatments, no toxicity was identified to MSCs or mice. Our results indicate that MSC-seeded ACgels have potential use as a novel adjuvant therapy for severe burns to complement commonly used skin grafting and, thus, minimize the downsides of grafting.
Project description:Wound healing is a complex physiological process including overlapping phases (hemostatic/inflammatory, proliferating and remodeling phases). Every alteration in this mechanism might lead to pathological conditions of different medical relevance. Treatments for chronic non-healing wounds are expensive because reiterative treatments are needed. Regenerative medicine and in particular mesenchymal stem cells approach is emerging as new potential clinical application in wound healing. In the past decades, advance in the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying wound healing process has led to extensive topical administration of growth factors as part of wound care. Currently, no definitive treatment is available and the research on optimal wound care depends upon the efficacy and cost-benefit of emerging therapies. Here we provide an overview on the novel approaches through stem cell therapy to improve cutaneous wound healing, with a focus on diabetic wounds and Systemic Sclerosis-associated ulcers, which are particularly challenging. Current and future treatment approaches are discussed with an emphasis on recent advances.
Project description:The treatment of full-thickness skin wounds is a problem in the clinical setting, as they do not heal spontaneously. Extensive pain at the donor site and a lack of skin grafts limit autogenic and allogeneic skin graft availability. We evaluated fetal bovine acellular dermal matrix (FADM) in combination with human Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells (hWJ-MSCs) to heal full-thickness skin wounds. FADM was prepared from a 6-month-old trauma-aborted fetus. WJ-MSCs were derived from a human umbilical cord and seeded on the FADM. Rat models of full-thickness wounds were created and divided into three groups: control (no treatment), FADM, and FADM-WJMSCs groups. Wound treatment was evaluated microscopically and histologically on days 7, 14, and 21 post-surgery. The prepared FADM was porous and decellularized with a normal range of residual DNA. WJ-MSCs were seeded and proliferated on FADM effectively. The highest wound closure rate was observed in the FADM-WJMSC group on days 7 and 14 post-surgery. Furthermore, this group had fewer inflammatory cells than other groups. Finally, in this study, we observed that, without using the differential cell culture media of fibroblasts, the xenogeneic hWJSCs in combination with FADM could promote an increased rate of full-thickness skin wound closure with less inflammation.