Obesity and Wound Healing: Focus on Mesenchymal Stem Cells
Antonio Alma,
Guya Diletta Marconi,
Elena Rossi,
Cristina Magnoni,
Alessia Paganelli
Affiliations
Antonio Alma
Dipartimento Chirurgico, Medico, Odontoiatrico e di Scienze Morfologiche con Interesse Trapiantologico, Oncologico e di Medicina Rigenerativa, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41124 Modena, Italy
Guya Diletta Marconi
Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Elena Rossi
Dipartimento Chirurgico, Medico, Odontoiatrico e di Scienze Morfologiche con Interesse Trapiantologico, Oncologico e di Medicina Rigenerativa, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41124 Modena, Italy
Cristina Magnoni
Dipartimento Chirurgico, Medico, Odontoiatrico e di Scienze Morfologiche con Interesse Trapiantologico, Oncologico e di Medicina Rigenerativa, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41124 Modena, Italy
Alessia Paganelli
PhD Course in Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41124 Modena, Italy
Chronic wounds represent nowadays a major challenge for both clinicians and researchers in the regenerative setting. Obesity represents one of the major comorbidities in patients affected by chronic ulcers and therefore diverse studies aimed at assessing possible links between these two morbid conditions are currently ongoing. In particular, adipose tissue has recently been described as having metabolic and endocrine functions rather than serving as a mere fat storage deposit. In this setting, adipose-derived stem cells, a peculiar subset of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) located in adipose tissue, have been demonstrated to possess regenerative and immunological functions with a key role in regulating both adipocyte function and skin regeneration. The aim of the present review is to give an overview of the most recent findings on wound healing, with a special focus on adipose tissue biology and obesity.
