WEDNESDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A population of bone marrow stem cells improves wound closure in diabetic mice, researchers report in the August issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Dennis P. Orgill, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, separated bone marrow cells from mice into a main population and a side population based on the exclusion of a dye and expression of CD7 and CD34 cellular proteins. The two populations were applied topically to wounds made in diabetic mice and normal mice the day after wounding.
The researchers found that after one week, the mean percentage wound closure in diabetic mice was significantly higher in those treated with the side population than the main population (35 versus 16 percent). The side population also tended to improve wound closure in normal mice though this was not statistically significant.
"Side population-treated wounds healed more quickly than main population- or control-treated wounds in diabetic mice, suggesting that one stem cell subpopulation, but not the majority, harbors the potential for improving the healing process," Orgill and colleagues write.
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