Menstrual fluid factors facilitate tissue repair: identification and functional action in endometrial and skin repair

What is it about?

This study takes a novel approach to solving the complex problem of non-healing wounds; translating the reparative properties of the endometrium following menses to the skin, to promote wound healing. The endometrium, the mucosal lining of the uterus, is the only tissue to undergo self-programmed destruction/tissue shedding and simultaneous, rapid, scar-free repair. The identity and source of factors regulating post-menstrual endometrial repair has been largely unknown. We determined that secreted factors present within menstrual fluid facilitate endometrial repair; the first study to demonstrate that menstrual fluid has any major function. In a unique translation, we subsequently demonstrate that menstrual fluid factors promote skin repair ex vivo and in vivo, using the gold standard ex vivo human skin reconstruction model and a porcine wound repair model. The latter is the gold standard model for human skin repair studies, as in the pig, skin repair progresses similarly to that in humans. Cutting edge proteomic analyses of menstrual fluid from individual women provided the identity of the complex mix of proteins within menstrual fluid compared with peripheral blood. In vitro and ex vivo functional studies confirmed that individual factors identified within menstrual fluid facilitate skin repair and that these act by different mechanisms than factors currently used. Translation of the data from this unique study has the potential to significantly improve human health by facilitating repair of chronic wounds, a significant and growing problem worldwide. This is of high applicability, given the paucity of treatments currently available for this difficult clinical problem.

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