Cell-based therapy is emerging as the next pillar of therapeutic intervention as it mimics the natural regenerative processes with reduced systemic side effects in comparison with conventional pharmaceutical therapy. The diabetics, immunocompromised, the patients with venous leg and pressure ulcer as well as certain bacteria-infected patients can develop chronic wounds, which do not heal well and do not follow the normal stages of wound healing. Among the strategies for treatment of these disorders, stem cells are emerging as one of the most promising approaches. Stem cells have the ability to differentiate into a variety of different cell types that could replace the damaged tissue but perhaps even more important is their ability to secrete a plethora of trophic factors promoting regeneration. The basis of our approach is to replace stem cells by engineered therapeutic cells producing trophic factors, such as VEGFa, known to be efficient in tissue repair and wound healing. The production of growth factors by engineered cells was confirmed by the Western blot and ELISA. The healing effect of engineered cells was confirmed by in vitro scratch assay on NIH3T3 fibroblast mouse cell line, mouse skin organ culture and by a significant effect on wound closure in vivo using mouse dorsal splinted excisional wound model on C57BL/6J mice. Our results emphasize the importance of paracrine effects of stem cell therapy, which is not limited to wound healing, but could be used in a variety of diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 5600794Project leader was in 2014 invited to give lectures about milestones in synthetic biology. Other project group members, particularly prof. Jerala gave numerous lectures on international conferences and foreign universities.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 5663514