Key Protein Molecules Promote Better Wound Healing In Diabetics

New research from France offers some hope for diabetics who suffer from chronic wounds such as foot ulcers that lead to 80 percent of lower leg amputations. The researchers showed in diabetic rats that a high protein diet rich in the molecules arginine and proline leads to better wound healing. Animals fed high protein diets – one with arginine and proline, one without – had better nitrogen balance than those fed the standard diet. But the wounds of the rats on the arginine/proline diet showed more new blood vessel growth by the fifth day. New blood vessel growth is essential to wound healing because blood vessels supply nutrition and oxygen to growing tissue.