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.