Nearly 50% Reduction in Diabetic Foot Ulcers With Stem Cells

MUNICH — Local injection of mesenchymal stem cells derived from autologous bone marrow shows promise in healing recalcitrant neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers, a novel study from Egypt shows.

 

Presenting the results at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2016 Annual Meeting, Ahmed Albehairy, MD, from Mansoura University, Egypt, said: “In patients who received the mesenchymal stem cells, ulcer reduction was found to be significantly higher compared with patients on conventional treatment after both 6 weeks and 12 weeks of follow-up. This is despite the fact that initial ulcer size was larger in the stem-cell–treated group.”

 

After 6 weeks, median ulcer reductions were 49.9% and 7.67% (= .001) in stem-cell–treated and control groups, respectively, and after 12 weeks, median ulcer reductions were 68.24% and 5.27% (= .0001). Complete healing was achieved in one case in the mesenchymal stem cell–treated group.

 

“The healing mechanism may be due to the pure effect of injected mesenchymal stem cells, which is due to the ability of these cells to simulate angiogenesis in the wound bed, decrease excessive inflammation, and suppress scarring,” explained Dr Albehairy … read more