PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Christoph Schürmann
AU  - Andreas Linke
AU  - Kerstin Engelmann-Pilger
AU  - Cornelia Steinmetz
AU  - Michael Mark
AU  - Josef Pfeilschifter
AU  - Thomas Klein
AU  - Stefan Frank
TI  - The Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitor Linagliptin Attenuates Inflammation and Accelerates Epithelialization in Wounds of Diabetic <em>ob/ob</em> Mice
AID  - 10.1124/jpet.111.191098
DP  - 2012 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
PG  - 71--80
VI  - 342
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/342/1/71.short
4100  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/342/1/71.full
SO  - J Pharmacol Exp Ther2012 Jul 01; 342
AB  - In recent years, new and effective therapeutic agents for blood glucose control have been added to standard diabetes therapies: dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, which prolong the bioavailability of the endogenously secreted incretin hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Full-thickness excisional wounding was performed in wild-type (C57BL/6J) and diabetic [C57BL/6J-obese/obese (ob/ob)] mice. DPP-4 activity was inhibited by oral administration of linagliptin during healing. Wound tissue was analyzed by using histological, molecular, and biochemical techniques. In healthy mice, DPP-4 was constitutively expressed in the keratinocytes of nonwounded skin. After skin injury, DPP-4 expression declined and was lowest during the most active phase of tissue reassembly. In contrast, in ob/ob mice, we observed increasing levels of DPP-4 at late time points, when delayed tissue repair still occurs. Oral administration of the DPP-4 inhibitor linagliptin strongly reduced DPP-4 activity, stabilized active GLP-1 in chronic wounds, and improved healing in ob/ob mice. At day 10 postwounding, linagliptin-treated ob/ob mice showed largely epithelialized wounds characterized by the absence of neutrophils. In addition, DPP-4 inhibition reduced the expression of the proinflammatory markers cyclooxygenase-2 and macrophage inflammatory protein-2, but enhanced the formation of myofibroblasts in healing wounds from ob/ob mice. Our data suggest a potentially beneficial role of DPP-4 inhibition in diabetes-affected wound healing.