Growth factors, wound healing, and neoplasia platelet‐derived growth factor as a model cytokine

Abstract

Cytokines such as the platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) appear to initiate and mediate a number of the many biological activities that sequentially occur in inflammation and wound healing. PDGF is a potent mitogen which may be used to illustrate how cytokines stimulate a cascade of events which culminate in wound healing. Through the capability of PDGF to chemotactically attract and activate cells of importance in wound healing and to initiate increased expression of a number of quiescent early and early intermediate response genes, PDGF fulfills the predictions anticipated of a candidate wound hormone. PDGF added directly to experimental wounds in animals enhances healing, suggesting that cytokines will become increasingly important as therapeutic agents in the treatment of wounds in humans. Also, the similarity of responses of cells in inflammation as well as in the wound healing cells neoplastically transformed suggests that aspects of neoplastic transformation may be viewed as a failure to fully regulate the cellular proliferative responses in wounds. Copyright © 1991 AlphaMed Press