Surface instillation of stem cell culture in repair of severe skin trauma in guinea pigs

Qiang CHEN; Xinyu WU; Shouliang GONG

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Stem cells, cells with special function in animals and humans, exist in various tissues. Most of stem cells differentiate into special tissue organs and some of them remain in the status of stem cells for tissue repair. Mesenchymal stem cells were transplanted to burn wounds in some researches for inducing the proliferation and activation of skin stem cells so as to cure burn.

OBJECTIVE:

To observe the effect of stem cell culture medium cultured in vitro instilled locally into the severely traumatic skin in guinea pigs on healing time and healing degree of the wound.

DESIGN:

Random grouping and blank control trial.

SETTING:

Department of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Jilin University.MATERIALS Totally 14 adult healthy guinea pigs of either gender weighing 300 to 350 g were recruited.

METHODS:

The experiment was conducted in the Laboratory of Toxicology Department, School of Public Health, Jilin University, from March to September 2003. Ten guinea pigs were put to death by bloodletting on the neck. The bone marrow was extracted and cultured in unicellular supematant fluid for use. The 14 guinea pigs were made into models of bilateral severe skin trauma.Ten of the guinea pigs were chosen randomly, stem cell culture was instilled into one side of the animals (stem cell group), while the culture medium was instilled into the other side of the animals (culture medium group). The remaining 4 guinea pigs that received no treatment were blank control group.Three days later, transparent lucite was put on the wound every other day for drawing the shape and observing the wound. After the shape was copied onto the transparent lucite, the wound area was worked out on the rectangular coordinate paper and the speed of wound healing was calculated.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

Gross observation was performed on the healing status of the wound and average healing time and speed of the guinea pigs in each group.wound healing status of the guinea pigs in each group At day 3, the wound in stem cell group was dry without obvious exudation. There was a layer of membrane at the bottom of the wound and it stuck to the pledget closely so that the dressing could not easily be removed. The wound status in the culture medium was practically the same as that of the stem cells, but no membrane-ike material was formed and the dressing was easily removed. Inflammation appeared obviously in blank control group.nificantly less in stem cell group than in culture medium group and blank control group [(12.45±2.18) days vs (26.29±1.38) days and ＞ 30It was obviously faster in stem cell group than in culture medium group and blank control group [(40.42±2.14) mm2 per day vs (15.53±5.22) mm2 per day and(10.27±4.57) mm2 per day,P ＜ 0.05].

CONCLUSION:

The stem cells of homologous animals were instilled on the skin surface to repair injury wound. Stem cells can grow on the wound and transform into skin cells, which promotes the recovery of wounded skin. Therefore, it is feasible to treat severe skin defect with stem cells.