Studies on platelets and wound healing

This thesis describes several studies on platelets, wound healing and angiogenesis. We found that platelets are functional and contain normal levels of growth factors after burn injury and can be used for autologous PRP therapy. However, there are disadvantages with the use of autologous PRP and therefore we studied the effects of different donor-derived PRP compositions on different wound healing assays. We found that the combination of donor-derived platelets and plasma is effective and superior to platelets and plasma alone. Furthermore, we aimed to identify proteins that regulate angiogenesis, a crucial aspect of wound healing. We uncovered Rab GTPases involved in this process and specific roles for Rab5 isoforms, in particular an unique role for Rab5C in maintenance of VEGFR2 levels. Finally, we describe the reciprocal role of integrins ɑ5β1 and ɑvβ3 in cell migration and angiogenesis.