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. 2025 Apr 15;14(1):14-24.
doi: 10.62347/AMSW4025. eCollection 2025.

Human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly mesenchymal cell medium progress the wound healing via cytokines and growth factors expressions

Tahereh Ebrahimi  1 , Vahideh Tarhriz  2 , Haleh Forouhandeh  3 , Fatemeh Sadat Shariati  4 , Ali Sahraeian Jahromi  5 , Mohammad Hosein Hadian Tabarestani  5 , Hossein Fathollahzadeh  6 , Masoud Delashoub  7
Affiliations

Human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly mesenchymal cell medium progress the wound healing via cytokines and growth factors expressions

Tahereh Ebrahimi et al. Am J Stem Cells. .

Abstract

Objective: Conditioned medium of umbilical cord mesenchymal cells is a rich environment in various growth factors and cytokines, the use of which causes self-improvement and self-renewal in damaged tissues.

Methods: Therefore, we investigated the effect of Wharton's umbilical cord mesenchymal cells on cytokines, growth factors expression, and skin wound healing in diabetic rats. Rats were divided into two groups of ten. In the treated diabetic group, 1 ml of conditioned medium was used intradermally, and in the diabetic control group, the same amount of physiological serum was used. The tissue samples were evaluated for histological studies. The expression level of inflammatory/anti-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors was investigated using RT-PCR and western blotting analysis.

Results: Our results showed that wound healing increased in the diabetic rat group with a pleasant environment compared to the control group. It was also found in molecular studies that the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors was significantly increased in the treated samples compared to the control group. In addition, a significant decrease in TGF-β expression as an important inflammatory cytokine observed compared to the control group.

Conclusions: The use of the conditioned environment of Wharton's jelly mesenchymal cells of the human umbilical cord improves the process of wound healing in terms of tissue and also increases the expression of the critical anti-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors. It can be considered a novel approach in wound healing treatment.

Keywords: Conditioned medium; cytokine; diabetes; growth factor; mesenchymal cells; skin wound healing.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Wound healing process. A. Days 15 (from left to right) in the treatment groups R1 and R2 (R=repeat) and control group. B. The average wound level in the treated group compared to the control group (P < 0.05). C. The percentage of wound healing and its values in the treated group compared to the control group.
Figure 2
Figure 2
RTPCR analysis. Evaluation of (A) inflammatory cytokines including TGF-β, TGF-α, and IFN-γ, (B) anti-inflammatory cytokines including IL-1, IL-7, IL-8, and IL-10, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001 indicate comparison between untreated (control) group and treated group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Western blot analysis. The expression level of TGF-β (50 and 40 Kd), IL-10 (between 40-50 Kd, ~43 Kd) and GAPDH (~37 Kd) Protein in treated group compared to untreated (control) cells.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Micrograph image of wound healing in two conditioned medium-treated groups and the control group on day 14 with hematoxylin-eosin staining.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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