Flow cytometry, in vivo imaging combine for important wound healing discovery

Using flow cytometry andin vivo imaging, researchers at Osaka University (Japan) verified that a plant-based polyphenol promotes the migration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in blood circulation and accumulates them in damaged tissues to improve wound healing. Results of the work could lead to using this stem cell treatments of cutaneous disorders associated with various damage and lesions.

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The researchers—led by Kosuke Fujita, Visiting Researcher, and Akito Maeda, Specially Appointed Professor at the HP Skin Regeneration, PIAS Collaborative Research, Osaka University—found that a vegetable-based polyphenol called cinnamtannin B-1 was likely to increase mobilization through the activation of enzymes surrounding MSC membranes and that the unique structure of cinnamtannin B-1 played an important role in that mechanism.

Flow cytometry analysis using mouse blood showed that MSCs were released from bone marrow to the blood in cinnamtannin B-1-administered mice. Through in vivo imaging analysis, it was observed that MSCs migrate to wounds treated with cinnamtannin B-1. It was also observed through experimentation that cinnamtannin B-1 enhanced wound healing.

With these findings, the researchers showed that cinnamtannin B-1 migrated MSCs surrounding bone marrow and blood vessels to the blood and accumulated them on the wound site to enhance wound healing. In experiments using enzyme inhibitors, they also showed the possibility that cinnamtannin B-1 enhanced mobilization through the use of activation of enzymes such as PI3 kinase near the cell membrane.

Full details of the work appear in the journal PLoS ONE; for more information, please visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144166.