Antimicrobial Peptides in Cutaneous Wound Healing

Injury that breached the physical skin barrier increases the likelihood of infection. The wound healing process is divided into hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and tissue remodeling. Antimicrobial peptides play a major role for the antimicrobial defense at all these stages in wound healing, but the main sources of antimicrobial peptides vary with the different stages of wound healing coming from plasma proteins, neutrophils, and keratinocytes. Apart from being part of the antimicrobial defense, antimicrobial peptides play other important roles in wound healing as in angiogenesis, attraction of leukocytes, resolution of inflammation, and proliferation. Future studies will demonstrate whether antimicrobial peptides can be used therapeutically to improve the wound healing processes and reduce scar formation in chronic wounds.