Local application of basic fibroblast growth factor increases the risk of local infection after trauma: An in-vitro and in-vivo study in rats

Introduction Local application of growth factors to stimulate wound and fracture healing is attracting increasing interest. We studied the effect of local application of a potent angiogenic growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), on resistance to local infection after soft tissue trauma.Methods For in-vitro and in-vivo experiments, we used recombinant human bFGF. The in-vitro investigations were performed by isolation of human leukocyte fractions, cytokine analysis, phagocytosis assay, flow cytometry, and LDH assay. For the in-vivo investigation, a paired comparison of infection rates was carried out on Sprague-Dawley rats after standardized, closed soft tissue trauma and local, percutaneous bacterial inoculation of different concentrations of Staphylococcus aureus (2 × 104 to 2 × 107 colony-forming units (cfu)). The lower leg was treated with 1, 10 or 100 ng bFGF (16 animals for each concentration) and without bFGF (16 animals).Results Cytotoxic reactions due to the concentrations of bFGF u...