en Cellular and molecular biology Cellular and molecular biology پژوهشي Research <span style="font-size:9pt"><span minion="" pro="" style="font-family:"><b>Introduction</b>: Restoration of burn wounds in a shorter time with fewer side effects is one of the main concerns of wound management. In this study, the effects of simultaneous use of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) and simvastatin (SMV) in partial-thickness burn wound healing and C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 12 (CXCL12) / C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression are investigated.</span></span><br> <span style="font-size:9pt"><span minion="" pro="" style="font-family:"><b>Materials & Methods</b><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">: </span></span></b>Animals (male Wistar rats) were categorized into five groups: 1) control (non-treated), 2) vehicle, 3) cell (HFSCs), 4) drug (SMV), and 5) cell-drug (HFSCs + SMV). The bulge of rat whisker was isolated and cultured in DMEM/F12 and transplanted to the burn-wound site. Daily dressing was performed with petrolatum gel containing 5 &mu;M simvastatin. At the end of therapeutic intervention, histological assessment (H&E), molecular assay (p-value blot), and tensile strength assay were performed. Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism version 6.01 (two-way repeated-measures ANOVA, one-way ANOVA, and Tukey&rsquo;s post-hoc test). A p-value was considered statistically significant. Quantitative analysis of wound healing parameters was performed using ImageJ 1.46r software.<span lang="FA" dir="RTL" style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:9pt"><span minion="" pro="" style="font-family:"><b>Results</b><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">: &nbsp;</span></span></b>The diameter of epidermis, dermis structural integrity, and expression of SDF-1/CXCR4 and VEGF in cell-drug groups were significantly improved compared with other groups (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed between the vehicle and control groups.</span></span><br> <span style="font-size:9pt"><span minion="" pro="" style="font-family:"><b>Conclusion</b><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">: &nbsp;</span></span></b>Hair follicle stem cell transplantation simultaneously with simvastatin treatment accelerates the healing of the burn wounds and skin tensile strength by elevating the SDF-1 and VEGF expression levels in the injected region</span></span> HFSCs, Simvastatin, VEGF, SDF-1/CXCR4, Tensile strength, Partial-thickness burn wound 29 38 http://jbrms.medilam.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1583-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Maliheh Nobakht nobakht.m@iums.ac.ir 10031947532846008559 10031947532846008559 No Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran Iran Paria Hashemi pr.hashemi@yahoo.com 10031947532846008560 10031947532846008560 No Neurosciences Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran Shokoofeh Kazemzadeh shokoofe_kazemzadeh@yahoo.com 10031947532846008561 10031947532846008561 No Faculty of Medicine, Shoushtar University of Medical Sciences, Shoushtar, Iran Kasra Safarkhani kasrasafarkhani84s@gmail.com 10031947532846008562 0009-0005-3889-2838 No School of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran Azar Babakhani azarbabakhani58@gmail.com 10031947532846008563 10031947532846008563 Yes Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam Iran