In clinical practice, it is commonly observed that chronic inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis occur earlier and more severely in overweight people. Likewise certain chronic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers. These chronic wounds are generally more difficult to treat in patients with obesity. The team from the University Hospital of Leipzig therefore wanted to know more regarding the factors and mechanisms favoring comorbidities and chronic wounds in patients suffering from obesity.
Chronic, or non-healing, wounds occur more frequently in obese patients
Saturated fatty acids and chronic inflammation: scientists have specifically studied how saturated fatty acids contribute to increased inflammation and can disrupt wound healing. When the skin is inflamed or injured, toxic molecules are released: the team focused on the molecule S100A9, a molecule associated with many saturated fatty acids, which causes abnormal macrophage activation and differentiation and ultimately leads to this chronicity of inflammatory reactions.
“A chronicity which also concerns the inflammation of skin wounds which then no longer heal at all”says Dr. Anja Saalbach, lead author and researcher in the Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology at University Hospital Leipzig.
A key molecule in chronicity
- in model mice, blocking the S100A9 molecule normalizes the uncontrolled activation of macrophages, in obesity, and therefore regulates the inflammatory response and stimulates wound healing.
- These same model animals subjected to a diet low in saturated fatty acids also see the inflammation better controlled.
- It would be enough to modify the diet, even without weight loss, to control inflammation and restart healing.
Research thus sheds light on the considerable role of foodbeyond obesity, in the development and continuation of inflammation and specifically targets saturated fatty acids.
An ongoing clinical study will determine if a change in diet can help treat psoriasis in humans. Other studies will be conducted on chronic wounds. But already, the S100A9 molecule appears to be a promising target for regulating uncontrolled inflammatory reactions and promoting wound healing processes in obesity.
