The “gifts” passed down to us by our ancestors are sometimes more, sometimes less flattering mom’s skeptical spirit, dad’s sense of duty, but then also: granddad’s unfavorably large nose. Traits can help us, or stand in our way depending on how well they are adapted to (and liked by) the people, the environment around us. While the purpose of grandpa’s nose remains puzzling, some inherited trai...

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) may develop corneal complications and delayed wound healing. The aims of this study are to characterize the molecular signatures and biological pathways leading to delayed epithelial wound healing and to delineate the involvement of TGFβ3 therein. Genome-wide cDNA microarray analysis revealed 1,888 differentially expressed genes in the healing epithelia of n...

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a polysaccharide common to most species and is found in many sites in the human body, including the skin and soft tissue. A systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis was performed to identify randomized controlled trials, evaluating the use of HA derivatives in healing burns, epithelial surgical, and chronic wounds. Nine studies were identified, which met the...

PURPOSE To examine whether tissues of human capsular opacification and subcapsular cataract contain osteopontin, an adhesive matrix protein, and whether mouse lens epithelium expresses osteopontin after injury. METHODS An immunohistochemical examination was conducted to determine whether matrices in human postoperative capsular specimens and anterior subcapsular cataract contain osteopontin. ...

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a pleiotropic cytokine that activates granulocyte and macrophage cell lineages. It is also known to have an important function in wound healing. This study investigated the effect of GM-CSF in wound healing of human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs). We used human GM-CSF derived from rice cells (rice cell-derived recombinant human GM-C...

This review focuses on the experimental evidence supporting a role for endogenous electric fields in wound healing in vertebrates. Most wounds involve the disruption of epithelial layers composing the epidermis or surrounding organs in the body. These epithelia generate a steady voltage across themselves that will drive an injury current out of the wounded region, generating a lateral electric ...

PURPOSE The present study was performed to investigate the effect of topically administered chitosan-N-acetylcysteine (C-NAC) on corneal wound healing in a rabbit model. METHODS A total of 20 New Zealand White rabbits were included in the randomized, masked, placebo-controlled experiment. A monocular epithelial debridement was induced by manual scraping under general anesthesia. Animals were ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The connexin 43 (Cx43) mimetic peptide Gap27 was designed to transiently block the function of this gap junction. This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of Gap27 on corneal healing, inflammation and neovascularization. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH The effect of Gap27 on wound healing, inflammation and vascularization was assessed in primary human corneal epithelia...

INTRODUCTION Leptin, a 16 kDa circulating anti-obesity hormone, exhibits many physiological properties. Recently, leptin was isolated from saliva; however, its function in the oral cavity is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the physiological role of leptin in the oral cavity by focusing on its effect on wound healing in the oral mucosa. METHODS Immunohistochemical analysis was us...

INTRODUCTION A multitude of topical wound treatments are used today. Although it is well established that the micro-environment of healing wounds can be altered to improve healing, it is difficult to measure the subtle differences in outcome where therapies are compared. METHOD We compared wound healing properties between four different topical agents in surgically incised wounds in a pig mod...