Department of Plastic Surgery, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. pshan@kumc.or.kr
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of this study is to compare the effects of bone marrow stromal cells(BSCs) and fibroblasts on wound healing activity in vivo, especially on epithelization. METHODS: The fibroblasts and BSCs were harvested from patients and cultured. Ten Spague-Dawley white rats were used. A 5 mm punches were made to excise skin and subcutaneous tissue in a round fashion at six sites on the back area of each rat. Four hundred thousand cells suspended in 0.05 ml fibrinogen were applied to the created wounds. The cells in group I, II, and III were no cells, fibroblasts and BSCs. The lengths of epithelial gap at the widest wound site were compared with autopsy specimens obtained on the 6th day after cell therapy under light microscope. Statistical comparisons were performed using the Mann-Whitney U-test, and the p value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS The best epithelization was also seen in the BSC group, followed by fibroblast and no cell groups. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that BSC has superior effect on stimulating wound healing than fibroblast, which is currently used for wound healing.