Treatment of burns with fibroblast transplantation

Recently, at the National Burn Institute, domestic experts have successfully implemented fibroblast transplantation technique in treating burn injuries. This is a great success, with world-class techniques that Vietnamese scientists have achieved after a long period of research.

In Vietnam, so far, we have absolutely no cell therapy in the research and treatment of wounds although the need for treating wounds is great.

(Photo: TTO)

In the National Burn Institute alone, there are about 3,000 patients suffering burns every year. That is not to mention the types of injuries which are inclined to increase according to the general development of the society such as radiation injury, chronic wounds caused by diabetes, spleen ulcers in neurological and ulcerative diseases. due to peripheral vascular disease .

The treatment also faced many difficulties because although there are some remedies that immediately stimulate wounds, they are generally poor and mainly use crude according to folk experience.

Dr. Dinh Van Han - who directly implements the topic: Fibroblasts are the most important cells in the period of wound healing. Fibroblast transplantation is actually the process of producing fibroblasts in the laboratory and grafting it onto the wound.

Many studies of fibroblast cultures have been confirmed to be very good at promoting wound healing. Fibroblasts are present in all tissues of the body. In skin tissue, fibroblasts are located in the mesenchymal layer, which is a major type of cell during the proliferation phase of wound healing.

They produce buffered proteins that make up the tissue's stability and integrity when the wound is instantaneous. At the same time, fibroblasts are an important source of several wound-stimulating growth factors such as TGF-b, PDGF, KGF.

Fibroblasts also create intercellular cushions that underpin the process of epithelialization and supply of laminin, decorin, elastin, and fibronetin fibers so that epithelial cells cling and slide on them to help speed up the process of epithelialization. cover the wound.

Furthermore, in chronic, ongoing wounds, or acute second-order wounds, firoblate transforms into miofroblat in the granulation tissue of the open wound, resulting in faster shrinkage and wound healing. Thus, Vietnamese scientists have used fibroblast culture technology to increase the density of this cell at the wound making the healing process faster.

The process of fibroblast culture is carried out entirely by scientists on the laboratory in the same way as cell culture in general. First, the scientists took about 1.5 - 2 cm2 of the patient's skin and then put that piece of skin into the culture medium with specialized chemicals that made the fibroblasts separate from the skin.

After eliminating unnecessary cells mixed in fibroblast populations and creating a homogeneous fibroblast sample then replicating until reaching the prescribed number and standards, fibroblasts This will be put on a rack.

The racks used must ensure certain standards such as non-toxic to cells, ability to adhere to wounds, prevent bacteria from entering, not dehydrate, lose fluid in the wound and has the ability to exchange air between inside and outside the wound. When the cells are stable, meaning that the cell is still capable of multiplying on the rack, it is still possible to secrete the stimulant that immediately heals and qualifies as normal cells in the patient's body. grafted onto the wound surface.

In fact, compared to the traditional treatments being applied in Vietnam, the treatment with fibroblast implants will make the wound faster, better scar quality.

Therefore, fibroblast transplantation is indicated widely in burn patients . It is possible to transplant fibroblasts onto the burn area to stimulate epithelialization, transplant fibroblasts to the skin area so that the area is faster and increase the ability to reuse that healthy area in the treatment of large-scale burns.

With deep burns, fibroblast transplants are combined with mesh skin grafting with a large stretch rate to treat extensive burns to create better adhesion of grafted skin and stimulate keratinocytes to grow from fragments. skin graft faster.