Open AccessTopical Fibronectin Improves Wound Healing of Irradiated Skin
Author(s) -
Maxwell B Johnson,
Brandon Pang,
Daniel J. Gardner,
Solmaz Niknam-Benia,
Vinaya Soundarajan,
Athanasios Bramos,
David Perrault,
Kian C. Banks,
Gene K. Lee,
Regina Y. Baker,
Gene Kim,
Sunju Lee,
Yang Chai,
Mei Chen,
Wei Li,
Lawrence N. Kwong,
Young Kwon Hong,
Alex K. Wong
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/s41598-017-03614-y
Subject(s) - fibronectin , wound healing , angiogenesis , medicine , human skin , skin repair , pathology , cancer research , immunology , biology , extracellular matrix , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics
Wound healing is significantly delayed in irradiated skin. To better understand global changes in protein expression after radiation, we utilized a reverse phase protein array (RPPA) to identify significant changes in paired samples of normal and irradiated human skin. Of the 210 proteins studied, fibronectin was the most significantly and consistently downregulated in radiation-damaged skin. Using a murine model, we confirmed that radiation leads to decreased fibronectin expression in the skin as well as delayed wound healing. Topically applied fibronectin was found to significantly improve wound healing in irradiated skin and was associated with decreased inflammatory infiltrate and increased angiogenesis. Fibronectin treatment may be a useful adjunctive modality in the treatment of non-healing radiation wounds.