Northwestern University researchers have developed a new high-tech but simple skin ointment that helps speed healing of wounds in diabetic patients.

Chemist Chad A. Mirkin and dermatologist Amy S. Paller, M.D., created the topical treatment using new gene regulation technology that speeds the healing of stubborn and painful diabetes-related foot ulcers.

The ointment, which was tested in laboratory animals, combines nanotechnology with a common commercial moisturizer to knock down a gene known to interfere with wound healing.

"Finding a new way to effectively heal these resistant diabetic wounds is very exciting," said Dr. Paller, director of Northwestern's Skin Disease Research Center. "But, in addition, this study further proved that [the biotech ointment] can penetrate the skin barrier, a challenge that other therapies have been unable to conquer."

Type 2 diabetes strikes more than 27 million Americans and many have chronic, non-healing skin wounds, and many undergo amputation.

But the new ointment, simply applied to the edges of the wounds in diet-induced diabetic mice, helped heal the ulcers in less than two weeks. Blood circulation at the wound site in the treated animals also improved.

The findings of the study were published this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.