Becker, DL;
Thrasivoulou, C;
Phillips, AR;
(2012)
Connexins in wound healing; perspectives in diabetic patients.
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes
, 1818
(8)
2068 - 2075.
10.1016/j.bbamem.2011.11.017.
![[thumbnail of 1333690.pdf]](https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png) Preview |
PDF
1333690.pdf Download (898kB) |
Abstract
Skin lesions are common events and we have evolved to rapidly heal them in order to maintain homeostasis and prevent infection and sepsis. Most acute wounds heal without issue, but as we get older our bodies become compromised by poor blood circulation and conditions such as diabetes, leading to slower healing. This can result in stalled or hard-to-heal chronic wounds. Currently about 2% of the Western population develop a chronic wound and this figure will rise as the population ages and diabetes becomes more prevalent [1]. Patient morbidity and quality of life are profoundly altered by chronic wounds [2]. Unfortunately a significant proportion of these chronic wounds fail to respond to conventional treatment and can result in amputation of the lower limb. Life quality and expectancy following amputation is severely reduced. These hard to heal wounds also represent a growing economic burden on Western society with published estimates of costs to healthcare services in the region of $25B annually [3]. There exists a growing need for specific and effective therapeutic agents to improve healing in these wounds. In recent years the gap junction protein Cx43 has been shown to play a pivotal role early on in the acute wound healing process at a number of different levels [4-7]. Conversely, abnormal expression of Cx43 in wound edge keratinocytes was shown to underlie the poor rate of healing in diabetic rats, and targeting its expression with an antisense gel restored normal healing rates [8]. The presence of Cx43 in the wound edge keratinocytes of human chronic wounds has also been reported [9]. Abnormal Cx43 biology may underlie the poor healing of human chronic wounds and be amenable therapeutic intervention [7]. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: The Communicating junctions, composition, structure and characteristics.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Connexins in wound healing; perspectives in diabetic patients. |
| Location: | Netherlands |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.bbamem.2011.11.017 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamem.2011.11.017 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | Animals, Connexins, Dermis, Diabetes Complications, Diabetes Mellitus, Epidermis, Gap Junctions, Humans, Keratinocytes, Models, Biological, Oligonucleotides, Antisense, Peptides, Phenotype, Quality of Life, Rats, Skin Diseases, Wound Healing |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1333690 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
