title: Mesenchymal stem cells combined with an artificial dermal substitute improve repair in full-thickness skin wounds.
abstract: Autografts represent the gold standard for the treatment of full thickness burns. Factors such as lack of suitable donor sites and poor skin quality, however, have led to the development of artificial dermal substitutes. The investigation of mechanisms leading to enhanced functionality of these skin substitutes has been attracting great attention. This study aimed to investigate the effect of autologous stem cells on the integration and vascularization of a dermal substitute in full-thickness skin wounds, in a murine model. Two cell populations were compared, whole bone marrow cells and cultivated mesenchymal stem cells, isolated from mice transgenic for the enhanced green fluorescent protein, which allowed tracking of the transplanted cells. The number of cells colonizing the dermal substitute, as well as vascular density, were higher in mice receiving total bone marrow and particularly mesenchymal stem cells, than in control animals. The effect was more pronounced in animals treated with mesenchymal stem cells, which located primarily in the wound bed, suggesting a paracrine therapeutic mechanism. These results indicate that combining mesenchymal stem cells with artificial dermal substitutes may represent an important potential modality for treating full thickness burns, even in allogeneic combinations due to the immunoregulatory property of these cells.
authors.affiliation: Burns Unit, Hospital de Pronto Socorro, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Dilmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leonardi
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oberdoerfer
authors.forename: Marilda C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Rosalva T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Meurer
authors.forename: Gustavo A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Pereira-Filho
authors.forename: Paloma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.forename: Roberto C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Chem
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Camassola
authors.forename: Nance B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Nardi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002452:Cell Count; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000379:methods; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D017768:Skin, Artificial; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*