Aberrant Wound Healing and TGF-β Production in the Autoimmune-Prone MRL/+ Mouse

Wound healing is a complex process that involves inflammation, apoptosis, growth, and tissue remodeling. The autoimmune-prone inbred mouse strain MRL/+ manifests accelerated and extensive healing to ear punch wounds, suggesting a link between immune defects and wound healing. Prior studies with lupus-prone mice have shown that hematopoietic cells of lupus-prone strains can transfer disease to otherwise non-autoimmune-prone recipients. In this study we performed reciprocal bone marrow transfers between MRL and the control strain B10.BR and found that radioresistant MRL/+ host cells, rather than hematopoietic cells, are required for the healing response. We have also made the novel observations that, compared to normal controls, MRL/+ hematopoietic cells overproduce TGF-β1 and manifest impaired inflammatory responses to lipopolysaccharide challenge. These features suggest that the aberrant wound healing phenotype of MRL mice is independent of their propensity to develop autoimmunity.