[Effects and related mechanism of bivalirudin on the survival of random skin flap on the back of rat]

Pharmacological and cell-based treatments to increase local skin flap viability in animal models

Local skin flaps are frequently employed for wound closure to address surgical, traumatic, congenital, or oncologic defects. (1) Despite their clinical utility, skin flaps may fail due to inadequate perfusion, ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI), excessive cell death, and associated inflammatory response. (2) All of these factors contribute to skin flap necrosis in 10-15% of cases and represent a significant surgical challenge. (3, 4) Once flap necrosis occurs, it may require additional surgeries to remove the entire flap or repair the damage and secondary treatments for infection and disfiguration, which can be costly and painful. (5) In addition to employing appropriate surgical techniques and identifying healthy, well-vascularized tissue to mitigate the occurrence of these complications, there is growing interest in exploring cell-based and pharmacologic augmentation options. (6) These agents typically focus on preventing thrombosis and increasing vasodilation and angiogenesis while reducing inflammation and oxidative stress. Agents that modulate cell death pathways such as apoptosis and autophagy have also been investigated. (7) Implementation of drugs and cell lines with potentially beneficial properties have been proposed through various delivery techniques including systemic treatment, direct wound bed or flap injection, and topical application. This review summarizes pharmacologic- and cell-based interventions to augment skin flap viability in animal models, and discusses both translatability challenges facing these therapies and future directions in the field of skin flap augmentation.

Therapeutic potential of naringin in improving the survival rate of skin flap: A review

Naringin is the main component of Drynaria. Modern pharmacological studies have shown that naringin has a wide range of pharmacological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, anti-ulcer, and anti-osteoporosis effects. Its therapeutic effects have been observed in various clinical models, such as atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and rheumatic diseases. This review investigates the pharmacological effects of naringin and the associated mechanisms in improving flap survival. This review will also provide a reference for future rational application of naringin, especially in research to improve flap survival.

Influence of Recombinant Codon-Optimized Plasmid DNA Encoding VEGF and FGF2 on Co-Induction of Angiogenesis

Simple Summary

Over the past few decades, several methods have been proposed to stimulate skin wound healing. The most promising of these are gene therapy and stem cell therapy. Our present experiments have combined several approaches utilizing human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells using cell therapy, and direct gene therapy using genetic constructs to accelerate complete healing of skin wounds in rats. Studies have shown that the transplantation of transfected cells stopped proliferative processes in regenerating wounds earlier than the transplantation of untransfected cells. The use of direct gene therapy using the VEGF and FGF2 genes stimulates the revascularization of the rat cutaneous wound.

Abstract

Several methods for the stimulation of skin wound repair have been proposed over the last few decades. The most promising among them are gene and stem cell therapy. Our present experiments combined several approaches via the application of human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells (hUCB-MC) that were transfected with pBud-VEGF165-FGF2 plasmid (gene-cell therapy) and direct gene therapy using pBud-VEGF165-FGF2 plasmid to enhance healing of full thickness skin wounds in rats. The dual expression cassette plasmid pBud-VEGF165-FGF2 encodes both VEGF and FGF2 therapeutic genes, expressing pro-angiogenic growth factors. Our results showed that, with two weeks post-transplantation, some transplanted cells still retained expression of the stem cell and hematopoietic markers C-kit and CD34. Other transplanted cells were found among keratinocytes, hair follicle cells, endothelial cells, and in the derma. PCNA expression studies revealed that transplantation of transfected cells terminated proliferative processes in regenerating wounds earlier than transplantation of untransfected cells. In the direct gene therapy group, four days post-operatively, the processes of flap revascularization, while using Easy LDI Microcirculation Camera, was higher than in control wounded skin. We concluded that hUCB-MC can be used for the treatment of skin wounds and transfection these cells with VEGF and FGF2 genes enhances their regenerative abilities. We also concluded that the application of pBud-VEGF165-FGF2 plasmids is efficient for the direct gene therapy of skin wounds by stimulation of wound revascularization.