Expression of β-catenin and cyclin D1 in epidermal stem cells of diabetic rats

The healing of diabetic wounds represents a formidable clinical challenge, and the molecular mechanisms invovled in diabetic wound healing are far from clear. In this study, we investigated the expression of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 in the epidermal stem cells (ESCs) of diabetic rats, and explored whether the reduction of beta-catenin and its downstream target in ESCs, cyclin D1, lead to poor wound healing in diabetes mellitus (DM). We found that, compared to the controls, the ESCs of diabetic rats were markedly reduced, the clone formation efficiency of the ESCs was markedly lower, and the mRNA and protein expression of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 was significantly decreased. These findings suggest that the low expression of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 may reduce the activity of ESCs from diabetic rats, which might be one of the important mechanisms of delayed wound healing in DM.