Healing the unhealable: Wharton's jelly stem cell vesicles as a breakthrough for feline chronic skin ulcers

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Chronic skin wounds in companion animals, particularly cats, often persist due to a combination of impaired healing responses and underlying primary etiologies, such as trauma, post-surgical dehiscence, pressure ulcers, allekirgic dermatitis, or immune-mediated conditions. Effective management therefore requires both accurate diagnosis and treatment of these primary causes and the implementation of strategies to promote tissue repair and regeneration. While an acute wound typically heals within 4–6 weeks through orderly phases of hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling, a chronic wound remains unresolved beyond this period, often due to prolonged inflammation or disruption of one or more healing stages. This study evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of WJ-MSC-derived EVs in adult cats with chronic ulcers persisting for more than four weeks. These EVs support essential biological processes, including immune modulation, tissue regeneration, cellular homeostasis, anti-inflammatory actions, and anti-fibrotic activity. Twenty cats were divided into two groups: an EV-treated group receiving carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) gel loaded loaded with Wharton's Jelly mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (WJ-MSC-derived EVs) (100 μg EV protein/cm2 wound area) alongside standard care, and a control group receiving CMC gel (in house prepared 2% concentration) alone

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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