Boston researchers have identified one of the key reasons wounds heal slowly in diabetics — a discovery that could lead to new ways to speed treatment of injuries.

According to new research from Boston Children's Hospital, published online in Nature Medicine, one of the body's own tools for preventing wound infections may actually interfere with wound healing in people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Scientists from the hospital's Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine found they could speed up wound healing in diabetic mice by keeping immune cells called neutrophils from producing bacteria-trapping neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).

Lead researchers Denisa Wagner and Siu Ling Wong suggested that methods of preventing NET production in a wound could help alleviate healing problems in patients with diabetes, such as diabetic foot ulcers that affect a quarter of people with diabetes and are a leading cause of amputations.

“NETs predispose patients to inflammation, heart disease, and deep vein thrombosis [blood clots], all of which are elevated in patients with diabetes,' said Wagner, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

“Any injury that causes inflammation will result in production of NETs, and we think that if the injury involves skin repair, NETs will hinder the repair process.”