Protein critical for development in fruit flies found to aid healing of cuts and wounds ...( Biologists at the University of Califor...)

Their discovery, detailed in the June 3 issue of the journal Developmental Cell, provides new insight for scientists into the molecular mechanisms responsible for wound healing in humans and may one day lead to the design of new drugs for individuals whose healing is compromised.

Improving wound healing is particularly important for burn victims and others with slow healing skin lesions like those associated with diabetes. Diabetes now affects more than 17 million Americans and the most prevalent form-type 2, or insulin-resistant diabetes-continues to skyrocket. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the number of diagnosed cases will increase 165 percent by 2050, as the number of overweight adults and children climbs in the United States.

Geneticists have long been aware of the role played by "c-Jun"-a protein called a "transcription factor" because it turns genes on and off- in bringing cells together during the embryonic development of Drosophila, the fruit flies commonly used in genetic research. For many years, Drosophila biologists have even suspected that the same biochemical pathways involved in a process called dorsal closure in the development of fly embryos were involved in wound healing in mammals. During dorsal closure in Drosophila, sheets of cells come together and fuse along the dorsal midline. The process looks similar to the way sheets of skin cells come together during wound healing in mammals.

"However, healing skin is a very different thing than putting together sheets of cells in making a fly," says Randall S. Johnson, an associate professor of biology at UCSD who headed the research team. "So we really weren't sure what to expect when we began our study. But we
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Contact: Sherry Seethaler
sseethaler@ucsd.edu
858-534-4656
University of California - San Diego
2-Jun-2003