Impaired cutaneous T-cell attracting chemokine elevation and adipose-derived stromal cell migration in a high-glucose environment cause poor diabetic wound healing

Diabetic wound care is a major health care concern. The major cause of non-healing of wounds in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) patients mainly involves poor glycemic control, which hinders the migration of progenitor cells including mesenchymal stem cells to the wound site. In this study, we introduced adipose-derived stromal cells (ADSCs) into wound sites and demonstrated that the local transplantation of ADSCs accelerated DM-related wound healing. Furthermore, the migration ability of ADSCs, which diminishes in a high-glucose environment, was partially restored by the exogenous replenishment of the cutaneous T-cell attracting chemokine (CTACK/CCL27). Our findings suggest that CTACK is a potential novel therapeutic target in DM-related wound healing.