As a result, human growth factors have been widely studied and today there are clinical applications of several individual growth factors. Examples are a keratinocyte growth factor (Kepivance®, Sweden) for oral mucositis and platelet derived growth factor (Regranex, UK) for non-healing diabetic wounds. However, these exogenous growth factors, when applied outside their normal environment, may h...

Growth factor bioavailability in therapeutic applications such as wound healing is limited by extracellular matrix sequestration, proteolysis, and clearance. Local, transient delivery by gene transfer is an attractive concept. Many transfection strategies are available, and adenoviral vectors are in clinical trials. Keratinocyte growth factor-1 (KGF-1), an epithelial-specific member of the fibr...

Vitiligo is an acquired depigmentary disorder of the skin that results from the loss of functioning epidermal melanocytes. Most studies on vitiligo have concentrated on the abnormality of melanocytes rather than the abnormality of keratinocytes; however, epidermal melanocytes form a functional and structural unit with neighboring keratinocytes. In fact, direct cell-to cell contact stimulates in...