KGF-1 for Wound Healing in Animal Models

Abstract

Keratinocyte growth factor-1 (KGF-1) is a member of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family FGF7 and is expressed in normal and wounded skin. KGF-1 is massively produced in the early stages of the wound healing process as well as during the later remodeling process (1, 2). We have studied the effects of the electroporation of a KGF-1 plasmid into excisional wounds of different rodent models mimicking diseases known to impair the normal wound healing process. We have used a genetically diabetic mouse model and a septic rat model in our experiments, and we have shown improvement of the healing rate (92% of the wounds are healed at day 12 vs. 40% of the control), the quality of epithelialization (histological score of 3.3 vs. 1.5), and the density of new blood vessels (85% more new blood vessels in the superficial layers than that of the control) (3, 4). Considering these results, we believe we can further explore the treatment modalities for using the electroporation-assisted transfection of DNA plasmid expression vectors of growth factors to enhance cutaneous wound healing.

Human Cell-Conditioned Media Produced Under Embryonic-Like Conditions Result in Improved Healing Time After Laser Resurfacing

“…Furthermore, the VEGF (4.33-fold increase), KGF (11.51-fold increase), and IL-8 (5.81-fold increase) levels also were upregulated under these culture conditions. Both VEGF and KGF are reported to be upregulated in hypoxic environments and to facilitate events in the wound-healing process [3][4][5][6].…”

“…The human cell-conditioned media (hCCM) contains a variety of growth factors and cytokines such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), and interleukin-8 (IL-8) that have been previously reported to play key roles in the wound-healing process [3][4][5][6].…”

The Roles of Growth Factors in Keratinocyte Migration

“…47 FGF-1, -2, -7, and -10 have been shown to have both mitogenic and motogenic effects on KCs both in vitro and in vivo. [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] In addition to binding to heparin and heparan sulfate proteoglycans in the ECM, FGFs bind to FGF binding proteins (FGFBP), which release FGFs from the ECM, thereby increasing the pool of free FGFs available for binding to FGFRs. 58 FGF-2 stimulates lamellipodia formation and Rac activation, leading to KC migration, and has a synergistic effect with EGF on inducing KC proliferation.…”

Investigation of Open Abdomen Visceral Skin Graft Revascularization and Separation from Peritoneal Contents

“…The importance of IGF-1 and FGF-7 signaling in the skin is evident from original studies with IGF and FGF receptor null mice, which demonstrated hypotrophic skin with reduced number and size of hair follicles in these knockout mice [40] [41]. In addition to their role in skin homeostasis, multiple studies Transcript analysis of visceral skin grafts revealed down-regulation of genes.…”