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Development of a Cellular Assay as a Personalized Model for Testing Chronic Wound Therapeutics
Petra Doerfler1, Nicole Schoefmann1, Gabriela Cabral1
1Akribes Biomedical GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
The Journal of Investigative Dermatology
|July 3, 2024
Summary
Researchers developed a new assay using fibroblast proliferation to distinguish between healing and nonhealing chronic wounds. This functional biomarker assay accurately identifies wound healing status and therapeutic effectiveness ex vivo.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Science
- Wound Healing Research
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Nonhealing wounds harbor pathogenic factors within their exudates.
- Chronic wound exudates impede the natural healing cascade.
- Developing reliable biomarkers for wound assessment is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To create a functional, cell-based biomarker assay for chronic wound exudates.
- To differentiate between healing and nonhealing wound states.
- To evaluate the efficacy of wound therapeutics ex vivo.
Main Methods:
- Utilized over 800 wound exudates from diverse wound types.
- Developed a human dermal fibroblast proliferation assay.
- Assessed exudate effects on fibroblast growth and transcriptional changes.
Main Results:
- Exudate inhibitory effects on fibroblast proliferation strongly correlated with wound chronicity (76-90% diagnostic sensitivity).
- Transition to a healing phenotype restored fibroblast proliferation and extracellular matrix formation.
- Nonhealing exudates induced inflammatory pathways and unfolded protein response in fibroblasts.
- The assay accurately predicted therapeutic responses to PDGF and silver sulfadiazine.
Conclusions:
- The developed assay serves as a reliable functional biomarker for wound healing status.
- Fibroblast proliferation inhibition is a key indicator of nonhealing wound pathology.
- This assay is valuable for profiling chronic wound therapeutics and guiding treatment strategies.
