Antler stem cell-conditioned medium stimulates regenerative wound healing in rats

BACKGROUND: When the deer antler is cast, it leaves a cutaneous wound that can achieve scarless healing due to the presence of antler stem cells (ASCs). This provides an opportunity to study regenerative wound healing. METHODS: In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effects and mechanism of antler stem cell-conditioned medium (ASC-CM) on cutaneous wound healing in rats. In vitro, we investigated the effects of the ASC-CM on proliferation of HUVEC and NIH-3T3 cell lines. In vivo, we evaluated the effects of ASC-CM on cutaneous wound healing using full-thickness skin punch-cut wounds in rats. RESULTS: The results showed that ASC-CM significantly stimulated proliferation of the HUVEC and NIH-3T3 cells in vitro. In vivo, completion of healing of the rat wounds treated with ASC-CM was on day 16 (± 3 days), 9 days (± 2 days) earlier than the control group (DMEM); the area of the wounds treated with ASC-CM was significantly smaller (p < 0.05) than the two control groups. Further molecular characterization showed that the ratios of Col3A1/Col1A2, TGF-β3/TGF-β1, MMP1/TIMP1, and MMP3/TIMP1 significantly increased (p < 0.01) in the healed tissue in the ASC-CM group. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, ASC-CM effectively accelerated the wound closure rate and enhanced the quality of healing, which might be through transforming wound dermal fibroblasts into the fetal counterparts. Therefore, the ASC-CM may have potential to be developed as a novel cell-free therapeutic for scarless wound healing.