Diabetic patients will be able to heal better with the modification of a specific type of white blood cells, the macrophages. This solution was found by the Canadian researchers affiliated with the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre.
Researchers at the Canadian medical research center, which is known as Centre Hospitalier De l'Université De Montréal (CHUM), discovered the experimental macrophages cell therapy is beneficial to help the diabetic patients, as reported by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Recently, diabetic patients often suffer a very difficult healing process when they have lesions on their feet because of poor blood circulation. In some cases of serious non-healing infections, they often have to undergo an amputation.
The new approach of macrophages cell therapy is done by modifying specific white blood cells, known as macrophages to accelerate the healing process. Researchers at CHUM have found a method to control the macrophages behavior using certain protein, called Milk Fat Globule Epidermal Growth Factor-8, or MFG-E8. They have published the research in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
A CRCHUM researcher and a professor of nephrology at the University of Montreal, Jean-François Cailhier said that macrophages cell therapy is found by controlling the white blood cells with the MFG-E8 protein. Principally, the MFG-E8, which is also known as lactahedrin is able to help the macrophages to increase the production of basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) to accelerate cutaneous healing of the damaged tissue.
"When a wound doesn't heal, it might be secondary to enhanced inflammation and not enough anti-inflammatory activity," Professor Cailhier said in explaining the macrophages cell therapy. "The MFG-E8 protein, by acting directly upon macrophages, can generate cells that will orchestrate accelerated cutaneous healing."
Macrophages is a type of white blood cells that executes the phagocytosis, a specific process that engulfs the abnormal cell in the tissue. The macrophages cell therapy basically boost the macrophages with the MFG-E8 protein to accelerate healing wound of the diabetic patients. Watch the explanation of macrophages below:
