Imaging of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Shining a light on diabetic foot ulcers: exploiting imaging mass spectrometry to explore impaired healing.

• IRAS ID

  229077

• Contact name

  Jelena Gavrilovic

• Contact email

  J.Gavrilovic@uea.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of East Anglia

• Duration of Study in the UK

  4 years, 9 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Research Summary
  People with diabetes are at risk of skin injury which can lead to the development of Diabetic Foot Ulcers which sometimes can lead to amputation. In this project using a new technique we will look at all the proteins made in very small pieces of skin donated by people with diabetic foot ulcers. This is important to help us understand what happens in wounds that heal more slowly than others.

  Lay summary of study results

  What was this study about?
  In this study we looked at proteins produced in wound skin tissue samples donated by people with diabetic foot ulcers.

  What did we aim to do?
  We wanted to find out which proteins are made in very small pieces of tissue from diabetic foot ulcers and in the slough tissue which is usually removed from diabetic foot ulcers in the clinic.

  Who participated in the study?
  The study recruited 3 participants with diabetic foot ulcers who consented to take part from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Diabetic Foot Ulcer clinic. The hospital research team collected samples at the start of the study and monitored how the diabetic foot ulcers healed over a 6-month period.

  What did we do in the laboratory?
  We looked at many proteins produced in the wound tissue and slough material using a method which detects very small amounts of protein.

  What did we find?
  We found that of the 3 diabetic foot ulcers studied, some proteins were found in lower amounts in the 2 ulcers which did not heal during the study. We also found other proteins at lower levels in the sloughed material from these same 2 diabetic foot ulcers.

  What do these results tell us?
  These results show that certain proteins might act as signposts to tell us which proteins may be needed to help diabetic foot ulcers heal more quickly. The results also show that slough material, which is routinely removed from diabetic foot ulcers, also contains proteins which may give us help in looking for new ways to improve healing of diabetic foot ulcers. We are in the process of writing a short research paper to report these results. We are very grateful to the people who participated in this study
  

• REC name

  East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  19/EE/0045

• Date of REC Opinion

  26 Mar 2019

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion