title: Negative pressure wound therapy induces early wound healing by increased and accelerated expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is commonly used to accelerate wound healing, especially following thoracic surgery; however, the mechanism remains elusive. Given the important role of vasculogenesis in wound healing, we evaluated whether NPWT might accelerate vasculogenesis in the wound area. Toward this end, we investigated the temporal expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs) in an NPWT-wound healing rabbit model.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rabbits were divided into an NPWT group and a non-NPWT control group, and tissue samples were collected around wounds made in the skin of each rabbit at five time points: 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after wound creation. Cryopreserved samples were then immunostained and subject to image analysis to evaluate the temporal changes in VEGFR1, VEGFR2, and VEGFR3 expression in the wound-healing process.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results of histological analysis of the temporal changes in VEGFR expression throughout the healing process showed that compared to the control group, VEGFR2 and VEGFR3 were abundantly and rapidly expressed in the NPWT group, and were expressed earlier than VEGFR1.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NPWT promotes the expression of VEGFR2 and VEGFR3, which provides insight into the mechanism by which NPWT accelerates wound healing. Level of Evidence: Not ratable.
authors: Department of Cardiac Surgery, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Tsuruhito
authors: T
authors: Tanaka
authors: Department of Cardiac Surgery, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Nirmal
authors: N
authors: Panthee
authors: Department of Cardiac Surgery, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Yoshifumi
authors: Y
authors: Itoda
authors: Department of Pathology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Naoko
authors: N
authors: Yamauchi
authors: Department of Pathology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Masashi
authors: M
authors: Fukayama
authors: Department of Cardiac Surgery, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Minoru
authors: M
authors: Ono
keywords: Immunohistochemistry; Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT); Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR); Wound-healing