New approaches aimed at healing wounds

A diverse group of researchers is exploring the biology of this process.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Jan. 14, 2008.

Washington -- Wounds may result from a gunshot, diabetes, a burn or a bedsore, but they all signal the body's healing mechanism to proceed through a series of complex steps. Four new centers have been funded to develop innovative therapies to both ease and speed this process.

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, recently awarded $13 million over four years to an interdisciplinary group of 36 investigators at eight universities and medical centers who are studying diverse approaches to wound healing.

Collectively, chronic wounds cost the nation $20 billion to $25 billion a year, and acute or traumatic wounds add another $7 billion to $10 billion annually, said Richard Ikeda, PhD, program director of the wound healing research portfolio at NIGMS. The problem is likely to become more costly with an aging population, because older skin heals more slowly and tends to have more problems in general, he added.

Although there has been a lot of progress in the wound-healing field -- new antibiotics, high-tech bandages and even skin substitutes for very problematic wounds -- there is only one product on the market, a growth factor, that targets the biology of wound healing, Dr. Ikeda said.

"When you think about cancer or infectious diseases, the tack has been to target the biology, to look at what you would target to either cure the cancer or cure the infectious disease. But in wound healing, we know a lot about it but we haven't been successful at targeting the biology to improve wound healing."