The role of chemokines during human skin wound healing

The healing process of skin wounds is regulated by growth factors which stimulate proliferation of resident cells and their synthesis of extra cellular matrixcomponents. Different leukocyte subtypes (neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes and mast cells) participate in wound healing not only as immunological effector cells but also as an important source of inflammatory and growth promoting cytokines. Rapid recruitment of leukocytes and their positioning is tightly regulated by a temporally and spatially changing set of chemokines. Whereas expression of IL-8 and GRO (growth related oncogene) direct early neutrophil recruitment, migration of macrophages is stimulated by MCP-1 (monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) and later, lymphocytes are attracted by IP-10 (gamma-interferon inducible protein-10) and Mig (monokine induced by interferon-gamma). Since chemokines as IL-8 and GRO also stimulate angiogenesis and keratinocyte proliferation, they integrate the inflammatory events with the reparative processes and are potential candidates in the search of wound healing agents.