Investigating the role of endothelial progenitor cells in wound healing

The ease of isolation of these cells combined with their expansion capacity, homogeneity and proven efficacy in various pre-clinical models underscores the potential of ECFCs to be used for therapeutic angiogenesis. The aim of this thesis was to determine if ECFCs have utility as a cell therapy for wound healing.<br><br>ECFCs were isolated from human umbilical cord blood and their cell characteristics confirmed through morphology, immunophenotyping of surface markers, their ability to spontaneously form vessel like structures in vitro and their ability to promote vascularisation in vivo.<br><br>In an effort to identify a relevant substrate with which to deliver ECFCs to wounds, three currently used dermal scaffolds (DS) were identified and characterised for their application as a carrier for ECFCs to treat wound healing.

A detailed investigation into the structural characteristics of each DS together with their degradation, the ability of the scaffolds to host cellular infiltration alongside vascular ingrowth in vivo, and the ability to host ECFC networks in vitro was determined. It was shown that MatriDerm® was the most suitable DS for supporting ECFC function.<br><br>To identify whether ECFCs could improve wound healing, a splinted wound healing model was used to investigate the wound closure and wound perfusion two- and four-weeks post injury.