| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Role of Nitric Oxide in Wound HealingUniversity of Florida College of Nursing, PO Box 100187, Gainesville, FL 32605bchildre{at}ufl.edu
University of Florida, Gainesville. Chronic wounds mainly affect elderly individuals and persons with comorbid diseases due to a compromised immune status. An age-related decline in immune function deters proper healing of wounds in an orderly and timely manner. Thus, older adults with 1 or more concomitant illnesses are more likely to experience and suffer from a nonhealing wound, which may drastically decrease their quality of life and financial resources. Novel therapies in wound care management rely heavily on our current knowledge of wound healing physiology. It is well established that normal wound healing occurs sequentially and is strictly regulated by pro-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors. A multitude of commercial products such as growth factors are available; however, their effectiveness in healing chronic wounds has yet to be proven. Recently, investigators have implicated nitric oxide (NO) in the exertion of regulatory forces on various cellular activities of the inflammatory and proliferative phases of wound healing. Gene therapy in animal studies has shown promising results and is furthering our understanding of impaired wound healing. The purpose of this article is to review the literature on NO and its role in wound healing. A discussion of the physiology of normal healing and the pathophysiology of chronic wounds is provided.
Key Words: nitric oxide inducible nitric oxide arginine wound healing physiology of wound healing pathophysiology of chronic wounds
Biological Research For Nursing, Vol. 4, No. 1,
5-15 (2002) This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

