**Cellular Therapy for Wounds: Applications of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Wound Healing Cellular Therapy for Wounds: Applications of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Wound Healing**

Moyassar B. H. Al‐Shaibani, Xiao‐nong Wang, Penny E. Lovat and Anne M. Dickinson Moyassar B. H. Al‐Shaibani, Xiao‐nong Wang, Penny E. Lovat and Anne M. Dickinson

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/63963

### **Abstract**

Despite progress in wound treatment including gene therapy, biological dresses and engineered skin equivalents, present treatment options for chronic wounds are restricted and not always effective. For example, inability to get consistent product from the introduced gene, biological covers may give rise to hypoxic conditions and engineered skin models are limited by their construction from substances which are hard to be degraded, and do not always result in complete replication into normal uninjured skin. A growing body of evidence suggests mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and their secreted growth factors and microvesicles, may potentiate the wound‐healing process and as such their addition to novel wound‐healing treatments may improve the efficacy of current therapeutic strategies. Recent studies report the ability of bone marrow‐derived MSCs (BM‐MSCs) to migrate and differentiate into skin cells *in vivo*.

Therefore, this chapter aims to review the important concepts of wound healing at the cellular and kinetic level and the potential therapeutic strategies of MSCs through which to improve their treatment. Focus to this chapter will begin with a description of wound types, phases of healing process, followed by an outline of the role of MSC secretions in each phase, leading to potential novel treatment strategies and the requirements for a successful healing process.

**Keywords:** cellular therapy, conditioned medium, growth factors, mesenchymal stem cells, skin regeneration

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
