Negative pressure wound therapy is a method for promoting wound healing by closing and applying negative pressure to the wound to protect the wound surface, promote granulation tissue formation, and remove the exudate and infectious waste products. Special equipment known as V.A.C.®ATS Therapy System (KCI USA, Inc., San Antonio, USA) has recently been developed for negative pressure wound therapy and has come into wide use.
  The fibroblast growth factor (FGF) trafermin is a therapeutic agent that works well for bedsores and skin ulcers by promoting the growth of fibroblasts and by specifically binding with FGF receptors present in the vascular endothelial cells and fibroblast cells; further, trafermin promotes angiogenesis and granulation tissue formation. We encountered a patient with a bedsore of the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel classification state IV with damages to the joint cavity and the body cavity. Negative pressure wound therapy was selected for promoting granulation tissue formation. We studied the advantages, including whether the use of trafermin has a favorable effect on wound healing, as well as disadvantages of producing possible side effect.

The temporal expression of estrogen receptor (ER)-alpha and ER-beta mRNA was examined in male Japanese quails. Femurs of quails receiving 17beta-estradiol underwent RTPCR and histochemical analysis 1 to 15 days after treatment. Untreated quails were used as controls (day 0). Between days 0 and 5, cells lining the bone endosteal surface differentiated into osteoblasts, which in turn formed medullary bone. Expression of ER-alpha was already observed on day 0 and increased slightly during bone formation whereas ER-beta was hardly detected throughout this process. After osteoclasts appeared on the medullary bone surface, this type of bone disappeared from the bone marrow cavity (days 7~15). ER-alpha expression simultaneously decreased slightly and ER-beta levels remained very low. These results suggest that estrogen activity mediated by ER-alpha not only affects medullary bone formation but also bone resorption.
Animals ; Bone Resorption/genetics ; Bone and Bones/chemistry/cytology/*metabolism ; Cells, Cultured ; Coturnix/*metabolism ; Estradiol/*pharmacology ; Estrogen Receptor alpha/genetics/*metabolism ; Estrogen Receptor beta/genetics/*metabolism ; Gene Expression Regulation ; Male ; Osteoblasts/chemistry/cytology/*metabolism ; Osteogenesis/genetics ; RNA, Messenger/metabolism ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction