A new study has found the antimicrobial properties of certain stem cell proteins could offer a potential treatment to reduce infection in skin wounds.

Treating wounds with the secretion of a type of stem cell effectively reduced the viability of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — better known as MRSA — according to a new study from researchers at the Baker Institute for Animal Health, part of the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). Moreover, the secretion stimulated the surrounding skin cells to build up a defense against the bacterial invader, the researchers found.

The study appeared Sept. 16 in Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

«The results showed that secreted factors from equine mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), a type of stem cell, significantly decreased the viability of MRSA in our novel skin model,» said first author Dr. Charlotte Marx, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of corresponding author Dr. Gerlinde R. Van de Walle, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at CVM.

«Moreover,» Marx said, «we demonstrated that equine MSC secretions increase the antimicrobial activity of the skin cells by stimulating immune responses of the surrounding resident skin cells.»

In 2017, more than 119,000 people in the U.S. suffered from bloodstream infections caused by MRSA — and nearly 20,000 died, according to the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MRSA has become a major health care problem because these bacteria can become threatening under certain circumstances, such as in immunocompromised patients or in infected wounds, and because they have grown resistant to many antibiotics — the only medications currently available to treat bacterial infections.

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