A physiological role for connective tissue growth factor in early wound healing.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that overexpress secreted frizzled-related protein 2 (sFRP2) exhibit an enhanced reparative phenotype. The secretomes of sFRP2-overexpressing MSCs and vector control-MSCs were compared through liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Proteomic profiling revealed that connective tissue growth factor (CTGF; CCN2) was overrepresented in the conditioned media of sFRP2-overexpressing MSCs and MSC-derived CTGF could thus be an important paracrine effector.