Summary
Wound healing is a multi-step process involving complex pathways at cell and molecular
level. Lack of understanding of the molecular mechanisms and pathogenesis of impaired
healing in chronic leg ulcers limits clinical assessment and management. In addition,
individual genetic background certainly affects the response to treatment and specifically
modulates the unfavourable lesion environment.Although the number of actors involved
in the aetiology of chronic wounds is extremely high, the ability to find out groups
of candidate genes on the basis of clinical and physio-pathological findings is a
crucial step.The present review demonstrates how recognition of functional gene variants,
mostly single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), significantly involved in wound healing
and venous ulcer establishment, extra- ordinarily helps prognosis, diagnosis and treatment
of chronic wounds.We deal with on how one can manage SNPs in coagulation factor XIII
(FXIII) and hemochromatosis (HFE) genes as molecular markers or prognostic tools.
In this fashion, we could pave the way for strategies aimed to single out in advance
categories of patients at increased risk to develop severe complications of chronic
venous disorders, or to predict the healing time after surgical intervention. Because
of its relevant epidemiology and its easily visualized lesions, venous leg ulcer is
an ideal model for investigating, the mechanisms of tissue injury and reparative process,as
well as the influence of different genetic backgrounds.
Keywords
Wound healing - single nucleotide polymorphisms - oxidative - stress - inflammation
- factor XIII - iron