Functional T lymphocytes infiltrate implanted polyvinyl alcohol foams during surgical wound closure therapy

Vacuum-assisted closure involving the implantation of polyvinyl alcohol foa m is a technique recently developed for the treatment of patients suffering from either wound infection or chronic wounds. This method has been shown to improve and accelerate wound healing. However, little is known about the cell populations that infiltrate the foam, and their potential role in res olving the infection and promoting granulation tissue formation. Our study demonstrates that wound-implanted foams are mainly infiltrated with granulo cytes, but that mononuclear cells, including macrophages and minor populati ons of T, B and natural killer lymphocytes, are also present. We show that foam-infiltrating T cells, especially CD4(+) T cells, constitute a phenotyp ically and functionally heterogeneous population influenced by wound-infect ing bacteria. Thus, T lymphocytes could play a role in wound cleansing. In addition, our data indicate that implanted polyvinyl alcohol foams might be suitable microenvironments for manipulating T cell-mediated immune respons es in patients.