Metabolomic profiling of wound healing

Abstract

The skin is the main protective barrier of the body and as such it’s under constant stress that can lead to wounds. The standard of care for severe wounds is skin grafting. Healthy skin is taken from the patient, meshed, expanded, and then implanted. Although this method has saved countless lives, it still has some serious shortcomings including a painful procedure and healthy skin being a limited source. Other alternatives are allografts and bioengineered skin substitutes, but these methods are also lacking in a variety of ways. A xenograft from acellular cod skin (ACS) has recently been developed for use in wound treatment.The objective of this study was first of all to establish if metabolomics can be used to monitor wound healing, second to develop a metabolic profile of wound healing and third to compare wound healing between treatments, in particular ACS is compared to cadaver skin and to no treatment. Metabolomics were used to create a wound healing profile based on the change over time of the biochemical profiles of wounds at day 3 and day 21. In particular, differences in the lipid and amino acid profiles of wounds were detected when treated with ACS as compared to cadaver skin and/or no treatment. The results of this study can be used as a starting point for further research on the effect of ACS, and possibly to monitor and predict wound healing outcome in the future.