Effect of negative pressure wound therapy on proliferation of epidermal stem cell in elderly diabetic ulcer wounds

Abstract

Objective To study on the changes of epidermal stem cells proliferation in the treatment of elderly diabetic ulcer wound by negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT). Methods Elderly patients with diabetes mellitus complicated with chronic refractory wounds were selected from First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University and Shenzhen Longhua District Central Hospital from January 2011 to December 2015. NPWT was used to treat these wounds. Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the changes of integrin beta 1 in basal cells of wound healing process(respectively before treatment, 2 weeks after treatment, 4 weeks after treatment). The paired-samples t test was used. Results No integrin beta 1 positive cells were found in the basal cells of the limbus wound before the NPWT, the integrin beta 1 positive cells appeared at the periphery of the wound at 2 weeks after NPWT, the positive unit was 1.74±0.07. At 4 weeks after received NPWT, the positive unit (expression of integrin beta 1 positive cells) was 29.07±0.65. The expression of epidermal stem cells (integrin beta 1) at the 2 and 4 weeks after received NPWT was significantly different from that before received NPWT (t=75.29, 140.31, with P values below 0.05). There was significant difference in the expression of epidermal stem cells (integrin beta 1) at the 4 weeks after received NPWT and 2 weeks after received NPWT (t=134.25, P<0.05). Conclusion NPWT promotes the proliferation of epidermal stem cells in elderly diabetic ulcer wounds and promotes epithelial wound healing. Key words: Negative-pressure wound therapy; Diabetes mellitus; Ulcer; Aged; Cell proliferation; Epidermal stem cells