WHS Session L: Wound Healing Foundation/3M Award Lecture

Wound Healing Foundation/3M Award Lecture

Moderators: Laura Parnell, BS, MS, CWS; Joshua Tam, PhD
Speaker: Veronica Haywood, DPT
Diabetic lower extremity ulcerations (DLEUs) are a common complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) that severely impact quality of life and can lead to amputation. With DM reaching epidemic proportions, a thorough understanding of the pathogenesis involved in impaired healing is required. Previous studies suggest that DM can alter glycosylation-related gene expression, leading to changes in protein sialylation and fucosylation. A disruption of the normal patterns of enzymatic protein glycosylation during wound healing would be expected to lead to functional alterations in cellular-protein interactions and signaling, thereby affecting wound healing and epithelial integrity. Although the expression and activity of ceramide glycosyltransferases are recognized as a necessary component of normal epidermal homeostasis and skin barrier function, most other glycosylation-related pathways have been ignored during normal and DM cutaneous wound healing. Our preliminary studies have identified multiple glycosylation gene pathways that are differentially expressed in DM and normal skin wound healing, including polysialylation. Additionally, our analysis of previously published datasets identified alterations in N- and O-linked glycosylation-related pathways in ulcerated versus intact human DM skin. With funding from the Wound Healing Foundation (WHF)/3M Fellow Award, we will determine if dysregulation of enzymatic protein glycosylation in diabetic skin induces impairments in skin wound healing.