T. Somers et al., LYSATES FROM CULTURED ALLOGENEIC KERATINOCYTES STIMULATE WOUND-HEALING AFTER TYMPANOPLASTY, Acta oto-laryngologica, 116(4), 1996, pp. 589-593
In the past, cultured keratinocyte allografts have been used with bene
fit in the treatment of burn wounds and leg ulcers. Since in burn woun
ds autologous and allogeneic fresh keratinocyte cultures were found to
give similar favorable results as lysates of allogeneic cultured cell
s, the authors investigated whether this lysate mixed in an antibiotic
suspension would also accelerate the epithelial healing after routine
tympanoplasty. In a double blind setting the healing process in 50 co
nsecutive tympanoplasty ears was studied: an acceleration of healing o
f 8 days was observed in the lysate-treated group (39.25 days) as comp
ared with the control group (47.23 days). The percentage of ears which
healed within 6 weeks (after 5 weekly applications of 200 mu l suspen
sion in both groups) was significantly higher in the treated group (61
%) than in the control population (36%). Although the therapeutical ef
fect of the keratinocyte lysate in this study is believed to be due pr
imarily to its mitogenic activity through growth factors or cytokines,
at present it is still unclear which growth factors are involved and
which combinations of these factors have to be present to modulate the
different stages of the complex healing processes.