A small molecule will improve the process of scarring of severe wounds
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Any damage to the skin of a person during scarring passes through several stages (inflammation, proliferation, maturation and restructuring) and is a rather complex process.
In recent studies by Swedish specialists, it has been established that, at certain stages of scarring, a key role is played by the miR-132 molecule, which regulates the expression of genes.
The team of scientists published the results of their work in one of the scientific journals.
For medicine and society a big problem is chronic wounds, i.e. Difficult to treat, long time not healing, which affects up to 1% of patients only in developed countries. To date, all medical and preventive methods are aimed at cleaning the wound from infection, which speeds up the healing process.
Swedish experts suggest using a small miR-132 molecule to treat severe wounds. In the course of their work, scientists focused on two stages of healing - inflammatory and proliferative.
In the inflammatory stage, the immune system activates special cells that "clean" the wound from foreign particles, bacteria, viruses, dead cells, etc. On the proliferative stage, the skin grows and the wound is gradually tightened. It is the transition from the inflammatory to the proliferative stage attributed to the critical state, the prognosis of the entire treatment depends on this.
The molecule miR-132 becomes the most active at the stage of inflammation and proliferation. Taking into account the results of previous research works, the specialists studied in detail the group of molecules miRNAs (microRNA), which regulate the work of genes responsible for the synthesis of proteins.
In the course of the work, specialists took the skin from the edges of the wound for examination and studied the expression of molecules during the healing process. As a result, scientists noticed that one of the molecules shows great activity, the miR-132 molecule remained active throughout the stage of inflammation, as well as at the epithelium growth stage (proliferation).
At the inflammatory stage, this molecule reduced the effect in the wound of immune cells, scientists tried to lower the activity of this molecule, which led to activation of immune cells and an increase in the inflammatory process in the wound.
At the proliferation stage, the miR-132 molecule enhanced the growth of epithelial tissue cells, while a decrease in the activity of the molecule inhibited the growth of the epithelium and significantly slowed down the process of wound tightening.
According to the authors of the research project, the miR-132 molecule is irreplaceable and extremely important at the stage of transition from the inflammatory stage to proliferation. It also serves as a kind of regulator of scarring of the skin.
This ability miR-132 interested specialists from a therapeutic point of view, scientists suggest that the increase in the activity of the molecule will help to treat severe skin lesions and wounds that do not heal for a long time.
Now Swedish scientists have set a goal to develop an effective treatment, based on microRNA, which, in their opinion, will speed up the process of wound tightening.
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