Growth Factors For Wound Healing

The process of wound healing begins immediately following surface lesions or when skin proteins become exposed to radiation, chemical damage or extreme temperatures. Wound repair requires close control of degradative and regenerative processes, involving numerous cell types and complex interactions between multiple biochemical cascades. Growth factors released in the traumatized area promote cell migration into the wound area (chemotaxis), stimulate the growth of epithelial cells and fibroblasts (mitogenesis), initiate the formulation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis), and stimulate matrix formation and remodeling of the affected region. Animal studies have shown that exogenously added growth factors can accelerate the normal healing process. Growth factors have also been used successfully in humans to treat previously incurable wounds. The most intensively studied growth factors are EGF, FGFs, PDGF, TGF-α, and TGF-βs. Each of these factors is currently the focus of intense commercial development.