Abstract
Objective. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from the umbilical cord and their conditioned media (CM) can be easily obtained and refined compared with stem cells from other sources. Here, we explore the possibility of the benefits of these cells in healing diabetic wounds. Methodology and Results. Delayed wound healing animal models were established by making a standard wound on the dorsum of eighteen db/db mice, which were divided into three groups with six mice in each: groups I, II, and III received PBS, UC-MSC, and CM, respectively. UC-MSC and their CM significantly accelerated wound closure compared to PBS-treated wounds, and it was most rapid in CM-injected wounds. In day-14 wounds, significant difference in capillary densities among the three groups was noted (n = 6; P < 0.05), and higher levels of VEGF, PDGF, and KGF expression in the CM- and UC-MSC-injected wounds compared to the PBS-treated wounds were seen. The expression levels of PDGF-β and KGF were higher in CM-treated wounds than those in UC-MSC-treated wounds. Conclusion. Both the transplantation of UC-MSC and their CM are beneficial to diabetic wound healing, and CM has been shown to be therapeutically better than UC-MSC, at least in the context of diabetic wound healing.
Highlights
Diabetes has undoubtedly become a major public health concern of the twenty-first century
When UC-Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their conditioned media (CM) were injected subcutaneously around full-thickness dermal wounds created on the diabetic mice, wound closure was significantly accelerated as early as day four after injury in the CM-treated wounds and at day eight after injury in the UC-MSC-treated wounds compared to PBS-treated ones and became more evident at day 14 (Figures 1(a), 1(b), and 1(c))
We found that injection of CM could accelerate wound closure, and the enhancement was even better and more rapid than that achieved by UC-MSC transplantation in contrast to Relative mRNA level normalized by GAPDH/fold the results obtained by Wu et al [18], they used MSC from a different source
Summary
Diabetes has undoubtedly become a major public health concern of the twenty-first century. Diabetic wounds that resist healing are associated with decreased peripheral blood flow and often resist current therapies. These achieve only 50% healing rates even with the best treatment available, that too, for a short-term [2], and 4/5 of these cases eventually succumb to amputation of the lower extremity [3, 4]. The therapeutic potential of transplanted human umbilical cord derived stem cells has been widely explored as a promising tool in the treatment of several human diseases, including graft versus host disease [5,6,7,8], diabetes [9, 10], Crohn’s disease [8], heart disease [11,12,13], and solid tumor cancers [14, 15], its effect on healing diabetic wounds has not been studied to the same degree
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