Life-Threatening Wounds Heal Faster From Animal Proteins Called 'Growth Factors'

A newly engineered "glue" produced by Swiss researchers potentially has the ability to benefit those with chronic wounds. Researchers at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland published their findings in the journal Science.

Mikaël Martino and his colleagues at EPFL found that growth factors, which are proteins that animals naturally produce, play an important role in healing an injury. Their job is to signal certain types of cells to come to the site of the injury and help repair the damage. Although growth factors are already used to help treat wounds and injuries, they're difficult to administer.

The research team examined how the proteins were able to bind to the extracellular matrix of all human cells. They manipulated a placenta growth factor-2 by attaching chemical hooks to it in hopes that the protein would stick to the extracellular matrix of the cells in mutant mice. These mutant mice carried a genetic defect where their wounds wouldn't heal properly or quickly enough.

The results were a success, and when the growth factor was stuck in place, other cells were messages to come and help fix the wound. As the researchers observed, the healing process occurred more quickly and they saw that they were able to apply the growth factors in much smaller doses because it was able to stick so effectively. They noted that the application of smaller doses is significant because if many growth factors are applied they could go into overdrive.

There are currently only two growth factors used in clinical treatments because the delivery of such experiments has been relatively difficult and unsuccessful. Piyush Koria is a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at South Florida and he believes this successful experiment can potentially get more growth-factor treatments into clinics. Burn victims can greatly benefit from this treatment because these growth factors can make it easier to conduct reconstruction practices such as skin grafting.

To read more about the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne study, visit this LiveScience article.