44292 Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) conditioned media facilitates wound healing

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are adult stem cells that can self-renew and differentiate into myocytes, chondrocytes, adipocytes, and osteoblasts. These cells have demonstrated therapeutic potency for treating numerous clinical conditions, including a multitude of inflammatory diseases, ischemia, fibrosis, myocardial infarction, type I diabetes, and autoimmune diseases. Importantly, MSCs can also be used for a multitude of regenerative medicine procedures. MSCs reside in numerous tissues of the body, and the most easily obtained are adipose-derived MSCs (ADMSCs) from lipoaspirates obtained during cosmetic surgery. Evidence indicates that the main beneficial effects of MSCs are mediated by the growth factors and cytokines that they secrete. Thus, collecting the media after MSCs are cultured, known as conditioned media (CM), captures the multitude of proteins that potentially have therapeutic value. To assess if CM possesed wound-healing properties, we cultured MSCs and collected the proteins that they secreted, optimizing their growth to produce CM with high levels of reparative growth factors and cytokines. CM not only increased the rate of proliferation of human keratinocytes, but in vitro scratch assays on skin cells also indicated that CM accelerated wound repair in a dose- dependent manner. Additionally, we performed in vivo regeneration assays by cutting the caudal fins of zebrafish, which regenerate autonomously, and adding increasing amounts of CM to the cultures.