Lorenz Michael Estrella

Introduction: Burns are a very common form of injury, in the United States alone, 500,000 people seek treatment for burns, with 40,000 of those cases resulting in hospitalization, and 4,000 people dying from their burn injuries every year.¹ Burns cause thermal damage to cells leading to necrosis and the formation of an eschar². Burns result in the mass release of many pro-inflammatory cytokines and other molecules which are critical for wound healing^1.3 Epidermal growth factor is a known modulator of the release and actions of these cytokines, as well as a key factor in wound healing.⁸ By functionalizing a skin graft used to treat burns with EGF, it has the potential Methods: Rats were subject to burns using hot metal and then treated with EGF solutions or creams. Various tissue samples or the burns wounds and surrounding areas were taken to observe healing microscopically.^4,5,6,7,8 Expression levels of inflammatory molecules and other mediators of wound healing were also measured.^4,5,6,7,8 Results: Mice burn wounds treated with EGF consistently showed improved wound healing measured by levels of inflammatory mediators when compared to no treatment.^4,5,7 All studies consistently found a time dependent change in levels of inflammatory mediators such as IL-6 and TGF-a when burn wound were treated with EGF.^4,5,7 When treated with EGF, pro-inflammatory factors such as IL-1 and TGF-a tended to increase during the early stages of wound healing and fall below control levels during the later stages ;at corresponds to better healing outcomes.^4,5,7,8 Tissue samples taken from the surroundings of the burn wound treated with EGF also displayed less inflammation and decreased apoptosis ⁶. Conclusions: The effects of EGF are preserved when delivered via skin graft⁸, so enhance of skin graft therapy for burn wounds by functionalizing the graft with EGF appears to be a viable clinical option. Experiments have shown that EGF is able to increase the rate of

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