The effect of allogenic human Wharton's jelly stem cells seeded onto acellular dermal matrix in healing of rat burn wounds

Background: Various methods were introduced to overcome the autograft shortage in burn wound care, including cell transplantation and tissue engineering.

Aims: To evaluate the healing effect of allogenic human Wharton's jelly stem cells (hWJSCs) seeded onto acellular dermal matrix (ADM) in rat burn injuries.

Patients and methods: Human Wharton's jelly stem cells provided from umbilical cord tissue were characterized before transplantation, and the growth kinetic was determined. Skin samples from cosmetic surgeries were used for preparation of ADM. Forty male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 equal groups. Third-degree burn was induced for all animals by exposing to hot water using a 2 cm ring for 10 seconds. Group 1 was burned rats that did not receive any treatment. After burn injury, the second group received silver sulfadiazine (SSD), the third group was treated just by using ADM, and the fourth group received 2 × 10⁶ hWJSCs seeded onto ADM. The animals were euthanized for histologic evaluation after 7, 14, and 21 days.

Results: Human Wharton's jelly stem cells were characterized to be spindle shape and positive for osteogenic and adipogenic induction and for mesenchymal markers but lacked hematopoietic markers. Population doubling time (PDT) was 40.1 hours with an increasing growth trend until day 6th. Macro- and microscopically, the healing was mild in ADM group and moderate in ADM + hWJSCs group after 21 days.

Conclusion: Allogenic hWJSCs seeded onto ADM improved the healing process in burn wounds denoting to their therapeutic and anti-inflammatory effects in burn wounds that can be added to the literature.