Engineered Fibronectin Peptide Resists Elastase Digestion, Speeds Healing, and Attenuates Scarring in Porcine Burns

Abstract

Burn injury is a dynamic process that extends in size and severity over several days, leading to excess injury, morbidity, and mortality (Shupp et al., 2010). After the injury, central necrotic tissue is surrounded by ischemic tissue that remains potentially salvageable. However, as ischemic tissue is exposed to additional stressors, such as nutrition depletion, reactive oxygen species, and cytokines, tissue cells in this region often die, by either apoptosis or necrosis (Lanier et al., 2011). Preventing cell death in damaged tissue-zones is a major goal of current research.