Naturally occurring growth factors in porcine wounds treated with autologous keratinocytes in a liquid environment

A step toward an improved understanding of the complex mechanisms of growth factor interactions may lie in the detection of endogenous growth factors during normal wound healing. The findings of this study on standardized ful l thickness wounds in swine, provide direct evidence that growth factors we re present in the wound fluid in the picogram range (highest concentrations ranging from 1273 pg/ml for transforming growth factor-beta (TGF beta) to 85.6 pg/ml for platelet-derived growth factor-AB (PDGF-AB)during healing. T he presence of transplanted autologous keratinocyte suspensions and culture d epithelial sheet graft had no significant effect upon the observed growth factor levels, although transplanted keratinocyte cell suspensions (KCS) a nd cultured epidermal autografts (CEA) did accelerate healing in comparison to control wounds in our model (KCS treated wounds healed in 13.2+/-0.9 da ys, CEA in 13.7 days+/-0.8 and control wounds in 14.7 days+/-0.3). The vari able occurrence of growth factors during normal wound healing may suggest p ossible mechanisms of growth factor interaction which could have an impact on the future design of their therapeutic use.