Efficacy of the therapy of 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy combined with human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-infected wound in a diabetic mouse model

This study aims to explore whether the combination of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and ALA-PDT will exert a more advanced curative effect on chronic wounds. All infectious mouse wound models were randomly divided into four groups: Untreated group, MSCs group, ALA-PDT group, and ALA-PDT combined with human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) (ALA-PDT + MSCs) group. Wound epithelialization was evaluated by wound healing rate, CFU analysis, Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). On day 12, healing rates of the untreated, MSCs, ALA-PDT and ALA-PDT + MSCs were 40.56% ± 7.06%, 74.23 ± 4.83%, 84.03 ± 3.53%, 99.67 ± 0.49%, respectively. The bacterial burden reductions, and histology revealed the combined therapy of hUC-MSCs and ALA-PDT leaded to a more intact epithelium, similar to the healthy. The strategy of combining ALA-PDT with hUC-MSCs possessed a significantly enhanced therapeutic effect over either single therapy.