[Advances in the research of treating refractory diabetic wounds with stem cells]

With the growth of aging society, China has become the country of population with the highest incidence of diabetes in the world. Diabetes leads to pathological changes in vascular and nervous system, rendering the diabetic skin fragile and hard to heal if wounded; in the end most diabetic wounds tend to become chronic skin ulcers. The refractory diabetic wound is the result of various endogenous and exogenous factors. It is a quite complicated pathophysiologic event which lacks an effective and specific therapeutic method in clinic. The use of stem cells could be a new approach of treating diabetic chronic wounds since they have a potential ability of self-renovation and multi-directional differentiation which will promote angiogenesis and wound healing process, thus be beneficial in the care of ischemia diseases of the lower limb. This article reviews basic theory of treating diabetic wound and the changes in microenvironment, and prompts many successful cases in curing refractory diabetic wounds.