Regenerative Wound Medicine

The recovery period after large scale injuries could be shortened. The effects are analyzed in an article that states, “True healing could occur thanks to the cloning of their own cells to help the recovery process” (“Pros and Cons” 5). Basically, the process of cloning healthy cells could be used as an aid in replenishing damage of unhealthy cells. This process, if it were to be actualized, could help recovery progress in anything from pulled muscles to the paralysis of an entire limb. In theory, the same research can be applied in other areas. If this technology is paired with stem cell research, it could result in a method of repairing physical damage. An article that focused on advances in biotechnology stated that “Another use of cloned stem cells could be the growth of replacement tissues in the laboratory” (LaPensee 15). Necrosis, apoptosis, and lymphocyte diapedesis all cause tissue damage or death. These tissues could be replaced by cloned cells of healthy tissues. This shortens recovery periods and leads to healthier tissue growth.

In 1981, a desperate man determined to save two lives made an emergency call to Howard Green(Hardie, Blackburn, 2011). The man who made the call was in charge of a burn center and had said that two young boys had been badly burned, emphasizing that nearly 90% of their bodies were burned. These kids needed help or they would not survive. They wondered if Green would be able to use the techniques he had developed in order to save their lives. Green, at this time, had been the first person to ever grow skin cells in the lab, he determined that skin would follow the same organized pattern as blood does and in determining that, he found that one skin cell was capable to go on and divide into millions. By harnessing his techniques, Green was able to grow skin grafts from the little remaining tissue on the boys. The grafts required a period of about 14 days before the grafts on the boys grew together. This procedure was one of the first of it’s kind, it was one of the earliest procedures involving the power of stem cells and from it, more and more research about the amazing regenerative cells began to take place.

Stem cell therapy, also known as regenerative medication, has been an increasingly utilized therapy in recent years. The cells added to the body interact with the surrounding body, making the regenerative process available to begin the healing process of the cells at the site (R. (2014)). These therapies are used to heal common sport injuries such as a knee injury, diseases, arthritis, and many other crippling effects that may occur in the human body (R. (2014)). Many of the stem cells that are used from the therapies can come from bone marrow, fat,and blood from the patient or even cells from more controversial areas such human embryos. Stem cell therapy has shown a lot of promising effects, not only outshining the effects of prescription medicine given out to patients from doctors, but it has also shown that the therapy has long term effects than a steroid would have had.

Skin flaps are commonly used in plastic and reconstructive surgery to repair defects resulting from trauma, congenital anomalies, or after tumor resection. Partial necrosis of the flap can be encountered postoperatively as a result of inadequate blood supply (Lu et al., 2008). Subsequent management of flap necrosis usually includes time-consuming and repetitive dressing changes aimed at promoting secondary intention healing or even secondary reconstructive procedures (Lubiatowski et al., 2002).

As the inflammation receds the proliferation phase begins, in this phase of healing, cellular activity predominates. The major events during this phase are the creation of a permeability barrier (ie, reepithelialization), the establishment of appropriate blood supply (ie, angiogenesis), and strengthening of the injured dermal tissue (ie, fibroplasia). Reepithelialization is the process of restoring an intact epidermis after cutaneous injury. It generally involves several processes, including the migration of adjacent epidermal keratinocytes into the wound. Epidermal stem cells from the hair follicle are now thought to originate from the hair bulge that is believed to be the germinative portion of the hair and serve as a reservoir for keratinocytes

The skin heals itself. When the skin is severely damaged, the skin creates a scab to close the wound.

Synthetic skin is a good alternative to biological skin during emergency situations that need to cover extensive burn injuries and the patient does not have sufficient skin for grafting. The composition and properties of the synthetic skin can be precisely controlled, for example, it can show better cosmetic results by adding growth factors to the structure. Artificial skin has shown that it will most likely have fewer complications from infection and dehydration. No product is perfect, that is why we will also mention the disadvantages of artificial skin. The price for the dermal substitution is higher compared to regular biological skin, the architecture of the synthetic graft does not resemble the native skin, and the graft can be broken off

Non-healing wounds, also known as chronic wounds, are defined as wounds that do not show improvement in healing within four weeks. Chronic wounds affect millions of people around the world and health care expenses in the United States can cost more than one billion dollars. Chronic wound healing is a complicated process with different pathologies depending on the patients’ condition. Four highly integrated and overlapping phases compose the wound healing process: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and tissue remodeling. Occurrence of chronic wounds is usually due to unsuccessful progression through the normal stages of healing, and frequently enters a state of pathologic inflammation. Several cell types are involved in the wound healing

The most important potential application of human stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies. Today, the demand for donated organs and tissues to replace ailing or destroyed tissue usually outweighs the available supply. Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat many diseases and damaged

Tissue engineering is a radically new concept for the treatment of disease and injury. It involves the use of the technologies of molecular and cell biology, combined with those of advanced materials science and processing, in order to produce tissue regeneration in situations where evolution has determined that adult humans no longer have innate powers of regeneration. Tissue engineering, however, along with some other aspects of regenerative medicine such as gene therapy, has yet to deliver real successes in spite of a considerable science base and investment in the commercial infrastructure.

The goal of regenerative medicine is to restore function through therapy at levels such as the gene, cell, tissue, or organ. For stem cells, physicians will obtain a patient’s own stem cells by aspirating tissue from the patient’s hip bone or from their fat cells. These cells are centrifuged down to identify and separate specific primitive cells that will help heal tissues (Alessandri et al., 2004). For PRP, a patient’s own blood is used and centrifuged down to obtain healing growth factors and the platelets (Pantou et al., 2012). These are rich in protein to help stimulate healing. Once these products are obtained, doctors are able to re-introduce them into the patient’s injured tissues. Regeneration of tissues and ligaments have accomplished significant improvement in patient outcomes without surgical intervention.

Ttissue engineering has advanced dramatically in the last 10 years, offering the potential for regenerating almost every tissue and organ of the human body. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine remain a flourishing area of research with many new potential treatments for many disease and amputations. The advances involve researchers in a multitude of disciplines, including cell biology, biomaterials science, and Injectable Tissue Engineering of cell material interactions. Tissue

Stem cells are unspecialized clonogenic cells that have the potential to differentiate into different kinds of cells with specialized functions. Normally, stem cells don’t have the “tissue-specific structures” that enable regular cells to perform specialized functions (Bethesda, 2015). In addition to multilineage differentiation, stem cells have the ability to continuously self-renew themselves (Gronthos, 2002; Zhao and Chai, 2015). They also play a key role in the repair and replenishment of tissues, replacing cells that are lost by “normal wear and tear or by injury and disease” (Bethesda, 2015). Their amazing capability to proliferate for long periods of time have made stem cells of particular interest to researchers interested in regenerative medicine (Zhao and Chai, 2015).

These data suggested that cell therapy with BMSCs has the potential to augment healing of surgical and cutaneous wounds.

The use of fibroblasts in skin substitutes is a crucial step toward better burn wound healing. Fibroblasts, which are naturally found in the dermis layer, are in charge of synthesizing and secreting the components that make up the extracellular matrix. In order for the skin to heal properly, one component that is especially important is collagen, for it plays a major part in the structure of the skin. Lack of collagen synthesis during healing can lead to raised scar, resulting in poor skin function and appearance[18].