This activity was presented at 2020 VRIC as part of Abstract Session 4: Vascular Regeneration, Stem Cells, and Wound Healing. 

Knowledge Strategy
The results of this project may lead to the development of new therapies for the treatment of diabetic wounds, which cause significant morbidity and mortality in a large proportion of the diabetic population.  These therapies will likely include topical nitrite and inhibitors of XOR. Additionally, our research is providing mechanistic data on the causes of impaired diabetic wound healing and methods to target these mechanisms.

Professional Practice Gap
Our lab has been researching the role of xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR) in diabetic wound healing. While XOR is necessary for normal wound healing, it has been suggested that it causes excessive oxidative stress in diabetic wounds and impairs diabetic wound healing. Our prior experiments with oral and topical febuxostat, an XOR inhibitor, have failed to consistently inhibit XOR and demonstrate a clear benefit for diabetic wound healing. With this research, we now demonstrate that inhibition of XOR with dietary tungsten does accelerate diabetic wound healing. Additionally, despite inhibiting XOR, which also functions as a nitrite reductase, topical nitrite has still been demonstrated to be effective in accelerating wound healing. Our current results indicate that this may be secondary to changes effected by nitrite on the wound microbiome.