Tissue therapy with autologous dermal and epidermal culture cells for diabetic foot ulcers

A great part of diabetic ulcers on the lower extremities have difficult healing and represent the most common cause of non-traumatic amputation In case of patients unresponsive to the classical therapy with debridement, dressings and systemic antibiotic therapy, cell therapy may be an excellent indication. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of autologous skin cell (fibroblasts and keratinocytes) implants cultivated ex vivo and applied to long-standing (9–34 years) skin ulcers of five diabetic patients (4 DM2 and 1 DM1) with autologous fibrin glue. There were six ulcers of onset between 4 months and 20 years before and from 4.0 to 36.62 cm2 in size, located on the lower limbs and unresponsive to the several conventional treatments. Complete healing was observed in five ulcers (83.3%), after 21–120 days. The patient who presented the largest ulcer had partial improvement in 40 days. It is believed that the more distal ulcer location is, the worse is its prognosis. There probably is a correlation between healing time, ulcer size and prior duration. No adverse reactions derived from the treatment occurred. It is concluded that this method is an excellent therapeutic option for diabetic ulcers, allowing faster healing. Its great advantage is being a minimally invasive procedure that can be carried out in an outpatient clinic.