Healix

Skin Regenerating and Wound BioRepair

Healing of damaged skin is a complicated process which needs to progress through the stages of inflammation, debridement, repair and maturation. A variety of cell types are involved in the healing process and are naturally stimulated by growth factors which signal cells on the periphery of the wound to migrate and repair the skin defect with granulation tissue.

Fibroblasts are able to secrete collagen and elastin to create extracellular matrix which is the basis of granulation tissue.

Endothelial cells are activated at the site of the wound by angiogenic factors including fibroblast growth factor and allows the formation of new blood vessels.

Keratinocytes adjacent to the wound undergoes activation and proliferation, migrating across the wound to allow reepitheliaisation and epidermal repair. Keratinocytes produce signals to further activate more keratinocytes and other cell types, contributing to the fibroblast growth factor pathway and the formation of granulation tissue and differentiation of myofibroblasts.

Arising from fibroblasts which have successfully migrated across the wound bed to the center of the wound, myofibroblasts are responsible for contracting and drawing in the wound edges towards the center of the wound to allow wound closure. To achieve complete wound healing, the fragile newly-formed granulation tissue needs to remain moist and well-vascularized to support normal cell function and help epithelial cells to migrate.

Research has shown acceleration and improvement of wound healing through application of growth factors on dermal ulcers and wounds on rabbits. ^1,2 A study on wound healing in hairless dogs showed that in comparison to the control, wounds treated with EGF “exhibited earlier re-epithelialization of the epidermis and highly regulated repair of extracellular matrix in the dermis”. ³ Delayed or incomplete wound healing presents as difficult challenges in patients under steroid treatment and a study on rats has shown that “EGF treatment can prevent the inhibitory effects of methylprednisolone on wound healing by stimulating fibroblast proliferation”.⁴

In chronic non-healing wounds, cell signaling is deficient and essential cell types are not able to undergo proliferation and migration, resulting in a lack of granulation and wound stasis. Wound edges may dry out and exposed soft tissue is no longer red and viable.

Healix Hydrogel is formulated with growth factors EGF and FGF to:

• Stimulate cell regeneration and division
• Promote fibroblast and keratinocyte migration
• Create a moist wound environment to maintain viable tissue and fresh skin edges
• Accelerate granulation tissue formation and epithelialization
• Improve wound contraction and complete closure

Healix Hydrogel – Unparalleled product exclusively for veterinary use, suitable for a range of clinical applications

Deep wounds such as:

• Traumatic wounds — bites, punctures, lacerations, degloving
• Medical wounds — post-surgery sites, penrose drain post-removal sites, wound dehiscence, bandage injuries and abrasions
• Chronic non-healing wounds — pressure sores, wounds in immunosuppressed and endocrine/diabetic cases, debilitated or geriatric animals
• Wounds of large surface area — burns, maggot wounds, sloughing, traffic accident/shearing injuries

Superficial wounds such as:

• Abrasions, minor cuts, scratches
• Ulcerated skin lesions

Advanced Cellular Regeneration

Corneal ulcers are commonly seen ophthalmic conditions in veterinary practice. Whether presenting as painful acute ulcers or difficult chronic non-healing ulcers, veterinarians aim for rapid control of infection and complete corneal repair. Apart from offering antibiotic eye drops, topical treatments are often limited to serum products. Research has shown that proteins such as EGF and IGF-1 contained in autologous serum may be the reason that therapy with serum has been successful in clinical studies on corneal healing. It has been found that EGF contained in serum is able to stimulate “proliferation of cultured epithelial cells and stromal fibroblasts” and “synthesis of fibronectin by epithelial cells”. ⁵

A long-anticipated innovative eye drop to improve treatment outcome for corneal ulcers and a welcome addition for your clinic in our current veterinary situation with limited topical treatment options.

Scientific research in the recent decades have investigated the use of growth factor peptides to assist with the complicated process of corneal healing.

EGF and FGF have been of particular interest in their ability to stimulate cellular regeneration and corneal repair.⁶ EGF-like substance were identified in mouse tears and the addition of exogenous EGF were found to significantly improve healing of deep corneal ulcers in mice. ⁷ A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicentre clinical study in humans showed that EGF is effective in increasing the healing rate of traumatic corneal epithelial defects. ⁸ FGF along with EGF have been used in studies on bovine cornea and findings suggest these growth factors “stimulated the cell population as a whole” ⁹ and may “play key roles in corneal wound healing by regulating migration of corneal cells” ⁶ Various studies have also been carried out to investigate treatment of corneal ulcers using growth factors in rabbits, mice and primates. ^{10, 11}

A long-anticipated innovative eye drop to improve treatment outcome for corneal ulcers and a welcome addition for your clinic in our current veterinary situation with limited topical treatment options.