Researchers have successfully combined bioactive peptides in an effort to stimulate wound healing. Investigators tested a newly-created peptide on patients with uncontrolled diabetes. Results of the application were dramatic: a 50% increase in blood vessel wall development, a 250% increase in growth of blood vessels and a 300% increase in cell migration in response to the injury.
Researchers then applied the wound-healing peptide with a peptide created during a prior study. Combined, they out-performed control groups, including becaplermin. Becaplermin is the only federally approved growth factor-containing drug for treating diabetic wounds, according to Tatiana Demidova-Rice, Ph.D.
“The confirmation that these peptides could act synergistically to improve human wound healing moves our research one significant step closer to clinical application,” added Ira Herman, Ph.D.
“The wound-healing peptides should also prove strategic as we continue developing ‘smart’ devices or fully-vascularized living tissue constructs for patients suffering with diabetic plantar or venous stasis ulcers,” Herman said.
Full findings appear in the journal PLoS ONE.
From the April 01, 2012 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News