Researchers stumble upon wound treatment protein
Professor Chris Jackson, a researcher at the Sutton Arthritis research laboratories at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital, has discovered a protein which could help treat open wounds and ulcers.
The new agent not only promotes healing but can also prevent the inflammation, the redness and the swelling allowing the wound to progress and heal normally.
The protein occurs naturally in the blood. Researchers believe it is switched off in patients with hard to heal ulcers. The treatment so far has proved very successful, with improvement in almost all of the cases and in a number of cases it totally closed over and healed the wounds.
A Royal North Shore Hospital dermatologist says they have seen a reduction in wound size in all the patients, with some wounds up to 20% smaller over four treatments, which at the early stage of research is remarkable. After the success of the first study, researchers will now trial the treatment on a further 300 patients.
