Enhanced Wound Healing for Diabetics

描述（由申请人提供）：伤口愈合受损和延迟是糖尿病患者的重要问题。此外，老龄化和糖尿病共同加剧了这一问题。这些观察结果引起了人们对体内生长因子促进愈合的药理学研究的兴趣。S伤口修复过程。临床试验结果令人沮丧，在人类伤口修复方面只有适度的改善。研究表明，愈合受损个体的细胞可能无法对生长因子做出充分的反应。因此，这些个体的伤口愈合可能不会通过生长因子治疗得到改善，而可能需要使用下游因子，这些下游因子通常在细胞中诱导，以响应参与愈合的生长因子，但在那些伤口愈合能力差的细胞中不诱导。在本研究的第一阶段，研究人员将测试一种特殊的因子，该因子是体内伤口愈合的关键组成部分，其表达通常由生长因子诱导，将测试其促进糖尿病小鼠伤口愈合的能力。如果成功，该因子将在II期作为临床伤口愈合剂开发，特别是对于那些受损的人

Description (provided by applicant): Impaired and delayed wound healing are significant problems in diabetics. Furthermore, aging and diabetes together further compound the problem. These observations have created interest in pharmacologic enhancement of healing with growth factors involved in the body?s wound repair process. Clinical trials have been discouraging, with only modest improvement in wound repair in humans. Studies indicate that cells in healing-impaired individuals may fail to respond adequately to growth factors. Thus, wound healing in such individuals may not be improved by growth factor treatment, but may require administration of downstream factors normally induced in cells in response to growth factors involved in healing, but not induced in cells of those with poor wound healing capability. In Phase I of this proposal, a particular factor that is strongly implicated as a critical component of wound healing in the body, and whose expression is normally induced by growth factors, will be tested for its ability to enhance wound healing in diabetic mice. If successful, this factor will be developed in Phase II as a clinical wound-healing agent, particularly for those with impaired wound healing, such as diabetics. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Wound treatment costs total billions of dollars (almost $10 billion for pressure ulcers alone). Impaired and delayed wound healing affect more than a half million individuals annually and are significant problems in diabetics (over 15 million diabetics are in the U.S.) and the elderly. Impaired/delayed healing also has severe impact on ischemia that leads to heart attacks (the leading cause of mortality) and limb amputations.