The effects of HIF-1α and VEGF on wound healing in diabetic mice

Objective: To investigate the effects of Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) on wound healing of diabetic mice. Methods: Streptozotocin (STZ) was used to induce establishing wound healing model group of type 1 diabetic mouse in the experiment. The protein expression of HIF-1α and VEGF at different time point were measured in the wound healing model group of type-I diabetic mouse and normal control group by use of Western blotting and then relative mRNA expression quantity of HIF-1α and VEGF were determined with relative quantitative method. Results: Before the operation, the difference between the diabetic model group and the normal control group in HIF-1α and VEGF expression as well as the relative expression quantity of mRNA was not statistically significant (P>0.05). At the fifth day of finishing operation, compared with the preoperative level the protein expression levels of HIF-1α and VEGF increased in the normal control group (P<0.05) and decreased in the diabetic model group (P<0.05) and the relative expression quantity of HIF-1α and VEGF mRNA in the normal control group was obviously higher that in the diabetic model group (P<0.05). Conclusion: HIF-1α and VEGF play important roles in diabetic wound healing and the decrease of their expression level may lead to lack of angiogenesis, which will delay the healing of diabetic wound.