Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) in Wound Repair

Growth factors are vital for regulating many of our cellular processes. Growth factors classically act as signalling molecules between the cells and also they bind to specific receptors on their target cell’s surface. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a protein that stimulates cell growth and differentiation by binding to its receptor called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). EGF is secreted by platelets, macrophages, and fibroblasts and acts in a paracrine fashion on epithelial cells. EGF family members which are involved in epithelial wound healing include EGF, transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α), and heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF). EGF exerts its activity after hydrolysis and participates in dermal wound healing through stimulation, proliferation, and migration of keratinocyte, endothelial cells, and fibroblast thereby facilitating dermal regeneration. EGF with other growth factors induced increased rate of wound healing by augmenting collagen deposition and neovascularization. There are some observations that diabetic wounds are enriched in proteases which provides support for the evidence that impaired growth factors availability may act as a rate-limiting factor in diabetic wound healing. Hence, the idea of injecting EGF deep into the wound base and edges would allow for a greater response in terms of growth of granulation tissue and wound closure. Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and EGF are direct mitogens for endothelial cells and dermal fibroblasts, and thereby accelerating re-epithelialization, proliferation and tensile strength of healed dermis. EGF was also used to treat congenital microvillous atrophy, which is associated with intractable diarrhea and characteristic microvillous involutions of the proximal small intestine. In this chapter, we are going to learn about the role of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in wound repair.